Brazil & Africa: fighting poverty and empowering women via South–South cooperation — outcome 2

Under the scope of the project ‘Brazil & Africa: fighting poverty and empowering women via South–South cooperation’, and aligned with the Centre’s expertise in capacity-strengthening, the IPC-IG was responsible for designing and implementing Outcome 2, entitled ‘Improved monitoring and evaluation of social policies in Mozambique’, aiming to strengthen national capacities in this African country.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Capacity-Strengthening and Advisory Services

Social Protection

A course on M&E and an online community

To this end, an IPC-IG team travelled to the Mozambican capital, Maputo, between June and August 2016 to deliver the first and second phases of the training course in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for social policies at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), oriented towards academics and policymakers in the country and focused on the local reality of students.

The course is the result of an ongoing partnership between the Centre and the UEM’s Centre of Policy Analysis (Centro de Análise de Políticas—CAP). The course was tailored to the Mozambican context, based on the findings of an M&E needs assessment carried out by an expert from the Centre during a mission to Maputo in 2015. Throughout the course, students discussed key public policy issues, such as: the public policy cycle; the logical framework approach and its use in M&E; the importance of data collection and information-gathering systems for M&E; and planning for policymakers. A wide range of impact evaluation methods were also discussed. The course also delves into current topics and views on the international agenda of M&E. The student body consisted of a gender-balanced class of 31 individuals from different government agencies, international organisations and civil society. Also attending the course were officials from the Mozambican Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS), as well as the National Institute for Social Action (INAS) and the National Institute for Social Security (INSS), among others.

During the second phase of the training course in August, Antonio Claret Filho delivered the inaugural class about the Renda Melhor programme, a conditional cash transfer scheme created by the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Claret Filho worked as the state’s Social Assistance and Human Rights Secretary, and shared with students his experience in designing, implementing and monitoring the programme. During this phase, students also presented their studies regarding Mozambican initiatives in M&E.

As a follow-up to the training course, the Centre created an online community in Portuguese on the socialprotection.org platform, entitled ‘Curso Monitoria e Avaliação—CAP Universidade Eduardo Mondlane/ IPC-IG’, for participants to share information and clarify any doubts about the course.