Lovemore Chazingwa- Own Correspondent.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – MEMBERS of the African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE) have stressed the need for consolidation and expansion of the network at the 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Harare, Zimbabwe on August 15 and 16, 2016.
Sixty-two participants from 14 countries took part in the meeting.Benin, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia and Sudan made their maiden appearance at the AGM.
Officially opening the meeting, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe, Honourable Jacob Mudenda (MP), said that development evaluation should inform appropriate policies and legislation to address two major issues, namely how Africa can exploit its abundant natural resources to promote development on the continent; and how it can reduce capital flight.
He noted an important role for APNODE in promoting the use of development evaluation: “APNODE should spread its wings throughout all the parliaments of Africa, and move forward with conviction.”
Discussing the objective of expanding the APNODE, participants called for the creation of a chapter in each African country to enable a stronger focus on development evaluation. Members of Parliament (MPs), parliaments and evaluation institutions in Africa, would benefit from the tools, capacity and support of the network to engage in evaluation processes.
The AGM highlighted the importance of evaluation in development processes at local, national and regional levels, highlighting that individual parliamentarians, as well as parliaments as institutions, have a key role to play in the evaluation process.
“Parliamentarians make important decisions and it is important that they have reliable data derived from evaluations,” APNODE vice chairperson Susan Musyoka of Kenya stressed.
APNODE encourages the use of scientific approaches of evidence-based decision making in all parliamentary work and reiterated the global evaluation network on the “10 reasons for parliamentarians to engage in national evaluation processes.”
Participants also reviewed the Annual Report 2015-2016 and provided guidance on the current drafting of the Strategic Plan for the Network. Recommendations were made to the Executive Committee on ways of ensuring the sustainability of the network.
The Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) of the African Development Bank (AfDB), currently hosts the APNODE Secretariat. Other development partners, including the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR), Anglophone Africa, UNICEF and UN Women, also took part in the meeting.
Sudan also known as North Sudan and officially the Republic of Sudan will host the proceeding AGM in its capital Khartoum next year.
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