Get Guardian on Google…Tasks Nigerians to evaluate govt’s performance on development
…Says citizens own evidence of performance because it affects their lives
One of Nigeria’s resourceful development experts, Micheal Oludare Ale, has tasked politicians in power to ensure that their manifestoes become concrete development for Nigerians to enjoy. He also tasked Nigerians to continuously evaluate government’s performances on projects that affect their lives. Ale also charged professional evaluators to ensure their duties are central to national development rather than merely being part of the system.
In his keynote address, titled :” Who Owns the Evidence?”, which he delivered on the occasion of the conference of the Nigerian Association of Evaluators, (NAE) held yesterday, November 2, and tagged: Evaluation: A national Asset, Ale expatiated on ten propositions which were given to fulfill the mandate of the conference:
“Strengthening National Evaluation Capacity, Ownership and Accountability for Sustainable Development“.
The propositions were tailored at enlightening all stakeholders, especially the government and citizens on the need to ensure that citizens enjoy the developmental projects government is mandated to provide. He harped on the dire need to ensure that the role of evaluators becomes central to this process.
Urging for the need to be proactive, he said : “Nigeria is not short of policies, strategies, plans or reports. Yet how often do we discontinue ineffective programmes because evaluation shows they are not delivering? How often can citizens trace public expenditure to measurable outcomes in their own lives?
These questions expose the distinction between producing evidence and owning it.
Speaking further, he added that : “The real challenge is a national system in which evidence is demanded, produced, validated, protected, shared, interrogated and consistently used — a shift from evaluation as an externally financed activity to an internally owned national governance function. The existence of evidence does not automatically translate into institutional learning, accountability or development.”.
By evidence, Ale meant the citizens actually enjoying the benefits of national projects which are meant to serve them. He therefore submits that : “Evidence belongs to the nation, but its credibility belongs to the integrity of the process through which it is generated.
First: What is not measured cannot be adequately understood.
Second: What is evaluated but not acted upon cannot deliver its full development value.
Third: What is not owned by national institutions and sustained by citizens cannot become a reliable foundation for sustainable development. Evidence is an asset of development. Evaluation is the mechanism through which that asset creates public value. And accountability is the guarantee that the value reaches the people.”
For Ale, there are conditions that testify that evidence is actually owned by the citizens. This is why he answers the question: What does it mean for a nation to own its evidence?”, saying : “It means the country holds the capacity, competence, frameworks, finance, infrastructure and commitment to decide what to evaluate, why, how, and how findings shape decisions”.
In order for a nation to actually own its evidence, Ale proposes further that this must be a collective responsibility. This, he advised that : Government evaluation and audit are not isolated activities. The Legislature, Executive, Supreme Audit Institution, National Evaluation System and Citizens have distinct mandates and a shared goal: better results and accountability for citizens.”
Harping on a symbiotic role of audit of evaluators besides the collective role of the foregoing government arms, Ale said : “Audit and evaluation are complementary, not interchangeable. An audit may show a project was properly procured, while evaluation reveals it failed its beneficiaries — and the reverse. We need both perspectives.”
