Support for Program Monitoring and Evaluation in Côte d’Ivoire

Through the Debt Reduction–Development Contract (C2D), France supplies an additional bilateral effort that cancels the debt of official development assistance (ODA) after the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. It further refinances, through grants, the debt maturities paid back by Côte d’Ivoire, thus helping to fund development programs determined in agreement between the parties. In 2012 and 2014, the French government signed two C2D with Côte d’Ivoire, for 1.125 M€ and 630 M€ respectively. Their projects and programs help meet the NDP.

To provide capacity building in evaluation, the Ivorian authorities and AFD decided to mobilize technical assistance for the monitoring and evaluation of projects and programs funded by the C2D. This international and national technical assistance is positioned as advisory support to operational bodies: Project Coordination Units (UCP) and Project Monitoring Units (CSP). These units have been created to coordinate and effectively run the different projects and programs funded by the C2D in Côte d’Ivoire. The idea is to strengthen the monitoring of the project and program implementation so that, in the long term, evaluations can be carried out under favorable conditions and their results help guide dialog on the different national public policies conducted over the previous several years.

The assistance to the operational bodies has five objectives:

• Produce a general framework of the C2D project evaluation process: prioritize, sequence and define governance and a timeline of evaluations to conduct.
• Frame each evaluation: propose Terms of Reference (ToR) for the selection of the evaluator, form a reference group, and run the process of ToR validation by the latter.
• Analyze and upgrade the monitoring and evaluation system: take stock of the availability of the information required to carry out the evaluation and, if need be, establish a remediation plan and work along with the project actors to collect the data that is lacking.
• Support the project and program evaluation process: help guide the monitoring of each evaluation through support to the reference group and its activities.
• Strengthen the capacity of the UCP and CSP: based on an analysis of the monitoring and evaluation function and the existing possibilities within the bodies, identify their needs and formalize a capacity-building plan.

The assistance mission will last one year and is renewable for three years. It will combine field missions and remote work. More broadly, AFD and the national statistics institute of Côte d’Ivoire signed a partnership agreement in February 2017 in order to jointly contribute to the production and analysis of quality data that will help in monitoring and evaluating the C2D projects. These data and analyses will help fuel joint reflection to support public decisions.

Contact : Pascal THIAIS, evaluation officer : thiaisp@afd.fr