The 2nd Tanzania Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Week took place in Arusha between 12th and 15th of September 2023, organised by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzania Evaluation Association (TanEA).
Participants from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire, including government representatives and evaluation practitioners, came together to promote monitoring, evaluation and learning practices among communities, foster a culture of monitoring and evaluation in government, and advocate for the development of a culture of demand for and use of evaluations. The Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the African Development Bank Group was represented in the event by Kobena Hanson, Principal Evaluation Capacity Development Officer, who moderated the panel session “M&E: where are we in the public sector?”
The session focused on the theme of "Strengthening monitoring, evaluation and learning to improve government performance," but also discussed a range of sub-themes through roundtables, keynote speakers, poster presentations, exhibitions and professional development workshops. The main sub-themes covered monitoring, evaluation and learning for governance and improving service delivery; incentives for M&E sustainability of strategic projects and programmes; the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in improving evaluation demand, capacity, and use; social and economic development; citizen science and community-led monitoring; young and emerging evaluators; and a parliamentary oversight role on monitoring and evaluation.
Events like the Tanzania Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Week are not only capacity building and networking spaces for evaluation practitioners to share exchanges and knowledge, but they also have a developmental value. The wide variety of topics present in the evaluations, from agriculture to water and sanitation or gender equality, are an opportunity to address practical real-life issues which impact the lives of many people in countries where the projects are implemented.