Evaluation of the National Evaluation System

Introduction The South African NEPF was approved in November 2011. It had been in operation for 5 years when Genesis Analytics (“Genesis”) was contracted in November 2016 by DPME to conduct the inaugural Evaluation of South Africa’s NES. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess whether the implementation of the NES is having an impact on the programmes and policies evaluated, the departments involved, and other key stakeholders; and to determine how the system needs to be strengthened to maximise its impact and value for money across government. 2. Approach, Method and Implementation of the Evaluation The evaluation made use of a theory-based approach as a departure point, including document analysis; literature review and international benchmarking; stakeholder mapping; case studies; key informant interviews; and a survey. The evaluation team conducted 112 key informant interviews and received 86 survey responses and conducted a cost-benefit analysis of a sample of evaluations. Departments and provinces were selected as case studies to represent a range of levels of engagement within the NES. Departmental case studies included the Departments of Basic Education (DBE), Human Settlements (DHS), Justice and Constitutional Development (DJCD), Social Development (DSD), and Trade and Industry (the dti). The provincial case studies consisted of the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Western Cape. 3. Key Findings from the Literature Review 3.1. A NES is defined as “…one in which evaluation is a regular part of the life cycle of public policies and programmes, it is conducted in a methodologically rigorous and systematic manner in which its results are used by political decision-makers and managers, and those results are also made available to the public”.1 It is important to emphasise that the concept of an evaluation system needs to be viewed in terms of a systems approach that recognises the importance of both an ability to provide sound evidence (the supply side) as well as the capacity within the system f or individuals and institutions to use information (the demand side)”.2 The development a NES is dependent on the political will for change in the country and the pace of the development of evaluation infrastructure. 3 Once the ‘building blocks’ for an evaluation system are in place, the focus shifts to embedding evaluation, or in other words, institutionalising evaluation. 3.2.