“Compared to Anglophone African countries, their Francophone neighbouring countries are lacking behind when it comes to the area of monitoring”. This was stated by Pr. Dieudonné Ouédraogo, former director of Higher Institute of Population Sciences in Burkina Faso. He opened the very first Francophone version of our international course “Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation” that was held in Ouagadougou last month.
Due to high interest from Francophone countries in Africa, two groups instead of one group of participants were organised, each with two facilitators. Participants came from Burundi, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, DRC, Benin, Togo, Burkina, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Facilitator duos consisted of one African (from AfrEA or Ouagadougou University) and one staff member of the Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation.
“We have organised monitoring and evaluation trainings in Anglophone countries for more than ten years”, said Dieuwke Klaver, one of the course leaders. “This is the first time that the training was also held in French. During the first week we explained the main concepts of monitoring and it’s role linked to global tendencies. We have also worked with case studies from the field, and provide participants with key principles to tackle issues they have experienced while carrying out projects and programmes. In the second week we prepared the actual monitoring system with the group. We identified that the questions you have to ask for development projects to have a positive effect.”
Monitoring is of critical importance for policy makers’ decision process. According to Gustave Kabré, president of the Ouagadougou University, the Burkina Faso government has adopted the area of monitoring. It will be applied in the new strategy for accelerated growth and sustainable development (SCADD). "To achieve relevant results it is necessary to monitor development projects and programmes carefully and punctually."
The Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation organised this training in cooperation with the Higher Institute of Population Sciences (Ouagadougou University) and the African Evaluation Association. It will be held next year again.