| Project Detail |
Project Development Objective(s)
Proposed Development Objective(s)
The objective of the proposed project is to “to strengthen the M&E capacity and systems of the MoAFWM and its
decentralized services for evidence-based strategic planning in agriculture and rural development”. Government
ownership of the evidence-based policy process is viewed as an important outcome of grant support, along with better
prioritization of programs and beneficiaries, and sector impact.
Key Results
Evidence-based decision making ensures that policies respond to the needs of the constituency for which
they are designed and leads to better long-term policy outcomes. It also helps to highlight an issue or
problem that requires specific attention; and strengthens the case for securing funding and resources for an
effective public response. Ultimately, the proposed project will help improve capacity of the MoAFWM to
optimize government expenditure by ensuring that resources, both domestic and external (EU grant
financing), are directed to the most effective policies and programs and improve service delivery and the
outcomes of public programs and investments, including, among others, Ministry’s subsidy programs,
implementation of the ongoing IPARD program, etc.
The results framework will be developed together with the MoAFWM, and the key results (outcomes) could
include enhanced capacity of the Ministry to inform policy formulation and implementation of agriculture
sector strategy, and support for adoption of the principles and techniques of evidence-based policy making
including statistical and gender-disaggregated analysis, as well as a targeted number of commissioned
evaluations. For example, the proposed project output indicators could include:
PDO level indicators:
- Improved M&E capacity for the adoption of evidence-based strategic planning in Agriculture and Rural
Development (including a set of actions to address gender gaps);
- Elements of evidence-based policy cycles incorporated into written MoAFWM procedures;
- Number of policy tools developed and systematically documented, with clear intervention logic and
appropriate monitoring indicators.
Intermediate indicators:
· A set of new agreed Agriculture sector performance indicators;
· M&E Plan, Manuals, Protocols developed for data collection and methodologies;
· Number of pilot tests of selected indicators conducted;
· Number of staff from the MoAFWM and decentralized departments trained in enhanced M&E
system.
Preliminary Description
Activities/Components
The project is provisionally planned to begin operating in late-2018 and continue until the end of 2021, with
an estimated total cost of US$1.8 million. The project has two components that are described below:
Component 1: Capacity Building for Evidence Based Policy Making (US$1,640,000)
Sub-component 1.1. Diagnostic work, development of agricultural sector performance indicators, and staff
training (US$180,000). At the onset of the project, a diagnostic work will take place to identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the existing M&E system, including but not limited to the following:
- Governance structure of M&E system, including who is responsible for collecting, collating, validating and
reporting data.
- The use of data including links with the budget process and performance evaluation.
- Champions and key political events that play key roles in mainstreaming M&E.
- M&E tools already applied at project, program and policy levels.
- Extent of existing donor support in the field of M&E capacity development.
- Gaps and duplications that hinder the effectiveness and efficiency of M&E.
The project will also identify a set of agricultural sector performance indicators that can guide evidencebased decision making. The diagnostic and the work on the agricultural sector performance indicators, will
provide the basis for the training program. The training needs for building M&E capacity will be identified by
an International Expert. A series of short (2-4 day) training programs will be implemented regularly during
the life of the project. In addition to relevant Ministry staff, training will also be provided for staff of
subnational sector public agencies, the national institute of statistics, relevant staff of regional government
administrations, and university staff, as deemed appropriate. Possible areas of training will include building
skills in: the selection, design and use of appropriate M&E approaches; how to review existing and
prospective sources of information; the development and management of data bases; the design and
commissioning of evaluations to support evidence-based policy making; techniques of policy analysis; the
design of mechanisms to build citizen engagement into the process of policy evaluation; and the alignment of
M&E outputs with strategy implementation and budget formulation. To ensure sustainability, the project will
seek possibilities to reflect this training in domestic training institutions curriculum and in train the trainers’
programs.
Sub-component 1.2 Manuals and Protocols for Data Collection, and Specific Evaluations (US$1,460,000). To
further build skills in the development of M&E for evidence- based policy making, the project will support
development of manuals and protocols for data collection, frequency of reporting, and roles and
responsibilities of the MoAFWM and relevant departments, including pilot testing of selected indicators. In
addition, the project will launch a small number of surveys and analyses to be commissioned and implemented by staff in the Ministry or other relevant agencies. Potential activities include: analysis of the
Agricultural Census; the development of templates for farm enterprise analysis (gross margins), which can be
updated quickly and easily with secondary data on an annual basis as the basis for monitoring trends in onfarm incomes and profitability; and a program to review and improve the current survey instruments used
for agriculture and rural areas, to render them better suited to evidence-based policymaking. Skills for
development of program baseline will also be provided to enable the assessment of impact of policy
interventions.
Further, the project will fund specific, detailed economic evaluations on topics agreed with the Ministrys
leadership. These evaluations would typically take a few months to complete, often involving a small ad hoc
working group comprising of staff from the relevant departments. They will focus on different issues, such as
impact analysis of existing policies, including socio-economic impact, environmental impact and regulatory
impact assessment. The project will also build a mechanism that will link the evidence and findings generated
by the evaluations to the regular policy formation processes within the Ministry. Each kind of evaluation
would have its own issues and approaches, which could be conducted in a peer-learning environment by
engaging short-term international consultants to build capacity, guide, and support the Ministry as they do
their first evaluations. It is important for the Ministry to gain their own experience in carrying out such
evaluations, to help them prepare Terms of Reference and better assess the reports that they receive. In
addition, the international experts will provide support with any specific evaluations based on the sector’s
emerging needs (e.g. assessment of the livestock sub-sector policies, national direct subsides, ongoing
implementation of the IPARD program, etc.).
The project will carry out information campaigns and workshops about the M&E initiative to improve the
knowledge between central and local governments; appropriate training to staff working on M&E
approaches, roles and functions, indicators, methodologies, etc.
The project will provide limited support for computers and software for data base management and judicious
use of new and promising remote sensing technologies. The project will also explore the ways to include
various digital platforms to help the newly established M&E Unit process big data more expeditiously and
efficiently.
An international advisor with demonstrated experience in capacity building for evidence-based policy making
will be recruited to guide and support project activities in the Ministry. Areas of support include: review of
the current institutional base within the Ministry for M&E and evidence-based policy making, including its
links to other ministries and public agencies, followed by recommendations and guidance on ways to
strengthen their institutional base; an assessment of the human resource base for policy M&E and the design
of a training program for building and strengthening relevant skills; a review of the current system of M&E,
its capacity to evaluate policy and its links to implementation of agriculture sector strategy and design of the
agriculture budget, and support for adoption of the principles and techniques of evidence-based policy
making -- including statistical analysis, commissioned research, citizen engagement and the use of
administrative information; a review of the current evidence-base for agricultural policy monitoring and the
development of recommendations on ways to strengthen its contribution to evidence-based policy making for agriculture; a review of the need to build capacity for independent policy monitoring outside the Ministry
(e.g. universities, think tanks) as a further input to evidence-based policy making and the design and
implementation of appropriate training and support programs; and the development of appropriate fora for
sharing the outcomes of evidence-based policy making with other government ministries and public
agencies. As capacity building of this nature is a gradual process, and will initially need support and
reinforcement, the International Expert will be appointed full-time in the first year of project
implementation. However, his/her presence will be reduced to 50 percent in the second year and to 25
percent in the third year of project implementation, as the national capacity for M&E will be strengthened
and the program work will be institutionalized within the Ministry.
Component 2: Project Management and Administration, Monitoring & Evaluation, Knowledge
Dissemination (US$160,000)
This component includes the provision of goods, technical assistance and training to a Project
Implementation Unit (PIU) for the implementation of the project (including the areas of financial
management, procurement, disbursement, monitoring and evaluation), financing of incremental operating
costs and costs related to knowledge dissemination. The component will comprise three sub-components: (i)
Project Management and Administration; (ii) Monitoring and Evaluation; and (iii) Knowledge Dissemination.
Sub-component 2.1 Project Management and Administration (US$118,000). The sub-component will: (i)
support operation of the PIU, and finance overall project management, as well as contract administration,
procurement, and financial management.
Sub-component 2.2 Monitoring and Evaluation (US$25,000). The sub-component will arrange for data
collection and reporting on key performance output and impact indicators through baseline survey and final
evaluation. This subcomponent will finance the costs of the Implementation Completion Report. The project
M&E framework will be developed during appraisal and its implementation will be reviewed regularly by the
Ministry and PIU.
Sub-component 2.3 Knowledge Dissemination (US$17,000): The sub-component will carry out knowledge
dissemination activities on the building and maintaining agriculture sector M&E systems for evidence-based
policy making to the relevant stakeholders. Specifically, this subcomponent will fund activities related to the
project launch, expert round tables and web-based and paper copy dissemination of the projects key
reports. The Ministrys and PIUs websites will be used for a virtual discussion of the projects studies. The
project will finance printing and distribution by direct mailing 100 of the final project reports in Serbian and
English to all key counterparts in the Governments key ministries and agencies, think tanks, NGOs active in
this sphere, key public libraries and higher educational institutions (faculties of economics and rural
development/agriculture). |
