IN THE bid to further improve knowledge and capabilities of monitoring and evaluation coordinators and practitioners across sectors in the region, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) in Western Visayas has recently conducted the third Regional Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Forum in Iloilo City.
Focusing on the need to develop effective mechanisms to respond to the resulting shifts and disruptions of the fourth industrial revolution and capture the opportunities it presents, the forum highlighted the use of M&E in evidenced-based decision-making.
Director Jeffrey Manalo of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center provided the details and efforts related to the monitoring of PPP projects.
Manalo also introduced the Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF).
SYSTRA Philippines president Maria Rhiza Castillo discussed the Value Engineering Value Analysis.
She encouraged the participants to use this process to achieve value for money and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government investments.
The Department of Health (DOH) regulations and mechanisms in monitoring health facilities, which is critical to the development of the local government units particularly the urban centers, were also discussed during the forum.
Neda-Western Visayas director Ro-Ann Bacal, in her speech, stressed that gathering timely and relevant data as expeditiously as possible to be used in effectively determining the performance of program and project implementers is critical to their work.
Bacal said monitoring and evaluation is critical in validating whether projects are implemented as planned, on set time period, and within available resources.
“The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data,” she said, adding that “as such, we should mainstream M&E into the development process cycle.”
The regional director further said that “through this, we can improve the way we gather and utilize data, especially for major projects that have tremendous impact on the well-being of people and communities, assuring everyone that decision-making, policy-formulation, planning, project formulation and investment programming are based on reliable information generated from our monitoring activities.”
The forum responds to the challenge issued by Neda Secretary Ernesto Pernia during the 8th M&E Network Forum for the M&E community.
Pernia said there’s a need to weave together perspectives and lessons in solving the country’s development challenges through evidence-based decision-making.* (PR)