scholarly journals A Global Overview of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and its Meaning in the Local Government Context of South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngengelezi W.K. Masuku ◽  
E. O.C. Ijeoma
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Participatory Monitoring ◽  
Public Scholarship ◽  
Rural Municipalities

The article explores the global overview of M&E from the ancient governance perspective that has been ignored by the modern government in the African contest. African M&E approach is required in the local rural municipalities due to its complex and diverse set of problems. These problems are as a result of leadership dichotomy which is witnessed between Amakhosi and municipal authorities. Amakhosi have a role to hold municipal authorities accountable from a Citizen-Based Approach.  The underlying philosophy of the article is not about the discourse of the modernists and traditionalists around the evolution of M&E, but is how and in what ways M&E should be designed and planned for the implementation of a successful relevant M&E approach for local rural municipalities. The article made use of secondary data, gathered from various sources. Case studies of the international countries were also sourced through desktop to ascertain their best practice on M&E. The article concludes that the lack of M&E approach for the local government in the rural municipalities requires the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) approach to allow stakeholders, including Amakhosi to assess the performance ofthe rural municipalities. The study is significant to the local and internal public scholarship of public administration since it bring approaches in M&E policy in the field of public administration. For example, indigenous African knowledge is critical in knowledge management.

scholarly journals Operationalising an effective monitoring and evaluation system for local government: Considerations for best practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kariuki ◽  
Purshottama Reddy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Community Protests ◽  
Sustainable Services

Background: Post-apartheid South Africa faces major challenges in ensuring that it provides high quality and sustainable services that meet citizens’ expectations. The public wants local government that is not only responsive to their needs but also provides high quality services equitably to all people irrespective of their socioeconomic status. Sadly, basic services delivery has been on a downward spiral, characterised by ongoing community protests in many local municipalities. The article premises that municipalities need effective monitoring and evaluation systems to operate optimally.Objectives: The article sought to show that monitoring and evaluation is a critical development tool that needs to be supported by municipal political and administrative leadership to ensure that it functions optimally by offering citizen-responsive services.Method: The study focused on KwaZulu-Natal province, the second largest province in South Africa, predominantly rural with a significant poverty and underdevelopment. The study utilised a mixed method participatory design, comprising quantitative and qualitative approaches.Results: The study found that monitoring and evaluation capacity is low in the majority of municipalities besides the Metro. The municipalities were inadequately resourced with competent monitoring and evaluation human personnel, thereby stifling their capacity to deliver quality monitoring and evaluation services.Conclusion: The article concluded that effective monitoring and evaluation in local government that is responsive to citizens’ needs is a non-negotiable imperative for government. It recommended that municipalities be adequately resourced with competent monitoring and evaluation human personnel. This is important for strengthening their capacity to deliver efficient monitoring and evaluation services.

Performance reporting delay in local government: a global south view

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Wharton Kaye-Essien
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Global South ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
Reporting Delays ◽  
Reporting Delay

PurposeThe object of this paper is to understand how central–local relations and internal technical characteristics contribute to performance reporting delays at the local level in a Global South context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops and tests four propositions using a combination of secondary data analyses and semistructured interviews with 30 local government officials.FindingsThe findings indicate that delays in performance reporting are generally high in pre-election years because leadership commitments at the local level largely shift toward national politics (campaigning for re-election of the president). Additional reporting delays were found to be the result of low financial capacity to maintain appropriate data collection and management systems, lack of highly trained monitoring and evaluation experts at the local level and lack of sanctions for noncompliance.Research limitations/implicationsThe fact that some types of Districts (large municipalities and metro areas with access to large financial resources) were excluded from the analysis induces some bias to the findings. The choice of 30 out of a total 260 local governments limits the analyses to only 12% of views and perceptions of local government reporting delay. Additionally sourcing responses from a few monitoring and evaluation (M&E) personnel out of hundreds of mid- to upper-level employees limited the breath of discussions that could have resulted from a broader study.Practical implicationsThe results of this paper suggest that any attempt at imposing sanctions on late reporting may not be very successful since national party politics, which lie outside the control of municipalities, is one of the main factors that drive reporting delay. Rather than imposing sanctions, government should consider incentivizing the reporting process. On the other hand, since internally generated funds (IGF) and the M&E team are factors that lie within the control of the municipality, any attempt to decrease reporting delay should first focus on improving local revenues and strengthening municipal M&E capacity building.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the existing literature by offering directions for approaching performance reporting delay in two ways. First, it emphasizes central–local relations as an important political determinant of performance reporting delay. Second, it explores reporting delay in Ghana's local governments and therefore provides useful insights from a Global South perspective.

scholarly journals Re-engineering imperatives to enhance the effectiveness of municipal public accounts committees in South African municipalities

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malefetsane A. Mofolo ◽  
Vuyo Adonis
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Influences

Background: After 26 years into democracy and 20 years of the new local government operations, the state of the majority of municipalities in South Africa still leaves much to be desired, as they are plagued with maleficence. What is concerning is that these negative tendencies that are troubling local government occur even under the watchful eye of the municipal public accounts committees (MPACs).Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the composition and the role of MPACs, which have experienced a number of challenges since they were introduced in response to the widely held perception of the culture of lack of accountability in South African municipalities.Methods: This article is theoretical in nature, and it draws its arguments from secondary data in order to understand the composition and the role of MPACs, including its challenges.Results: This study regards the composition of the MPAC as lacking the necessary vigour to be efficient and effective in executing its duties, particularly when considering the challenges and political influences that it tends to face in its operations.Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a need for re-engineering of the composition and the role of the MPAC in order to ensure that it executes its functions efficiently and effectively. Consequently, the study recommends three cardinal pillars that must be given attention in re-engineering the MPAC: policy, authority and power.

scholarly journals Transparency report disclosure practices of large- and medium-sized audit firms in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rozanne J. Smith ◽  
Ben Marx
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Firm Governance

Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the corporate governance practices disclosed by large- and medium-sized audit firms in South Africa, with a particular focus on transparency reports. Audit firms serve the public interest.Motivation for the study: This study was motivated by recent corporate failures in South Africa, such KPMG, VBS Bank, and Steinhoff, to mention a few.Research approach/design and method: The research approach followed for this study consists of a mixed method approach. Qualitative secondary data were obtained from publicly accessible information published on the websites of the audit firms. The data, which consisted of the firms’ transparency reports, were analysed through content analysis. The results were then converted into quantitative data.Main findings: The main findings reveal that audit firms in South Africa do not disclose sufficient corporate governance information in their transparency reports. There are inconsistencies between audit firms.Practical/managerial implications: In South Africa, audit firms do not have a corporate governance code for audit firms, and thus audit firms are not disclosing the relevant corporate governance information to their stakeholders.Contribution/value-add: This article contributes to the limited literature available on audit firm governance. Based on the findings, the study proposes best practice recommendations and regulatory and statutory recommendations regarding audit firm governance.

Community Participation in the South African Local Government Dispensation: A Public Administration Scholastic Misnomer

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntwanano Mathebula
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
South African ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
The South

The interpretation, application and understanding of community participation in the South African local government discourse in particular, is ambiguous, thus, creating a more simplistic and superficial meaning for operationalization. This paper seeks to challenge the notion that community participation is a substitute in its ontological and epistemological form and connotation for public participation. Many scholars in public administration have jumped on the bandwagon of dispensation, thus creating a misnomer in relation to a distinct nature of community participation and public participation which clearly undermines the authenticity of conception within the discipline and scholarship in general. Using a variety of qualitative secondary data collection and analytical techniques, this paper interrogates the misnomer in public administration scholarship in relation to the use andapplication of community participation specifically in local government. To successfully demonstrate this misnomer regarding the use, application and understanding of the concepts and their impact on scholarship, five selected articles on community participation and five others on public participation on local government published in the Journal of Public Administration (JOPA) were reviewed. The paper therefore concludes that the influential role of public administration as a scientific discipline is to forge relations with public administration as a practice for the purposes of conceptualizing and operationalising concepts and terminologies. This will ensure conciseness and bypass the contradictions which have potency of denting both scholarship and practice.

scholarly journals Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation: Reviewing an Inclusive Approach in the South Africa's Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noluthando Matsiliza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Participatory Methods ◽  
Participatory Monitoring ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
The Government ◽  
Evaluation And Monitoring

The premise of this paper is to canvass for the inclusion of stakeholders in participating in the Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation (GWM&E) using the participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) approach. The focus is mainly on the practicality of using participatory methods as part of the agenda to cascade the implement the M&E into different stake-holders using various methods in South Africa. A variety of public participation methods should be recognised to benchmark for the inclusion of stakeholders at the local level in the evaluation and monitoring of public programmes and projects in order to allow more space for civil society engagement in development policies and social accountability. Participation is increasingly recognised by countries as an integral part of M&E process while it offers environment for civic participation in a more inclusive and responsive approach towards service delivery and budget  allocation in South Africa. Using a qualitative approach, conclusions and recommendations from this study contribute towards monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and projects in the field of Public Management. This study intends to address the paucity of literature on Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in South Africa.

scholarly journals The impact of corruption on service delivery: a topical matter in the South African Municipalities

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabeba SJ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
South African ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The South ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

One of the topical challenges facing South African municipalities recently is corruption. From time-to-time citizens learn about and witness the corrupt practices of public officials in the Local Government sphere. Arguably, the phenomenon of corruption has both direct and indirect impact on service delivery with specific focus to municipalities. Section 152(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) states that the Local Government sphere has the mandate to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. Subsequently, some of the communities across the country still wish to have access to basic services namely: water, electricity, community halls and proper tar roads to name a few. As a result, at times it seems impossible for municipalities to smoothly render such services due to corrupt practices emanating in the South African Local Government sphere. This article aimed to explore the impact of corruption on service delivery in the South African municipalities. The article fully relied on secondary data as it collects information from newspapers, books, journal articles, conference proceedings, officials report and academic dissertations. In pursuit of all this, Afrocentricity: a theory of social change has been placed in context with a view that the needs of the society should be placed at the center of the local government sphere. To be specific, these needs are but not limited to water and electricity. Looking at the findings of the study, indeed literature can confirm that corruptions have negative impact on the ability of the municipalities in South Africa to provide basic services. Because the interests of the public are competing with those of the municipal officials. Therefore, at the end of the day service delivery is compromised due unlawful practices.

Forging and Consolidating Developmental Local Government Through Area-Based Management Governance

2018 ◽  
pp. 18-36
Author(s):  
Ndwakhulu Stephen Tshishonga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
Key Participants ◽  
Competent Staff

This chapter deliberates on the role and importance of area-based management governance in forging and consolidating the developmental local government at eThekwini Municipality in South Africa. Considering the challenges faced by developmental local government to fulfill its constitutional mandate, the chapter argues that the grounding and consolidation of area-based management governance could be instrumental in economic growth, job creation, poverty alleviation, and meeting basic needs. However, for area-based governance to succeed in addressing these challenges, appropriate structures of democratic accountability and coordination coupled with competent staff could be entrenched. This could also be done by sticking to key developmental goals as outlined in the eThekwini Municipality's integrated development plan. The chapter made use of secondary data in the form of books, journal articles, and governmental policies and documents as well as selected interviews with key participants in five area-based areas.

scholarly journals Participatory monitoring and evaluation in local government: a case study of Lambussie District, Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-55
Author(s):  
Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai Akanbang ◽  
Anass Ibn Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Participatory Monitoring ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
District Assemblies

Ghana has pursued decentralisation since 1988, but its implementation continues to face challenges. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is one of the tools that can help local governments to be more effective in the planning and management of development projects. However, the issues involved in implementing PM&E in rural local governments operating within a rapidly changing sociocultural and political environment have not been sufficiently explored. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper draws on project and policy documents and primary data on the application of PM&E in District Assemblies’ Common Fund projects implemented between 2013 and 2017 in Ghana’s Lambussie District. Six key informant interviews were held with district- and regional-level stakeholders, and eight focus group discussions were undertaken at the community level. The research found that inadequate provision for operationalising PM&E at the local level, and lack of accountability and feedback mechanisms, resulted in a tokenistic approach to PM&E. The authors suggest that research and advocacy on mechanisms for holding district authorities accountable is vital to the success of future PM&E initiatives at local government level.

scholarly journals Anti-Afrophobia policy shortfall and dilemma in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Mbecke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
South African ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
New South ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Government ◽  
Pan African

Since 1994, South Africa witnessed various xenophobic attacks, the two recent ones leaving over 60 Africans dead in 2008 and 17 in 2015. Xenophobia is an embarrassment to the new South African Government, which is considered the leader of African unity, democracy, good governance and development by some governments in the world. South African and African political leaders have remained indifferent and they have not as yet developed and implemented policies and strategies to address the massacre of Africans in their own continent, hampering prospects of realising the promise of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). This article emphasises a public administration perspective on managing and preventing xenophobia through national and pan-African policies and strategies. It uses migration theory to review South Africa’s migration and anti-xenophobia policies and strategies. Through literature review and interviews with the NEPAD Agency, the silence of the continental initiative on xenophobia was confirmed, prompting the need to review the European Union (EU) best practice. The article acknowledges the importance of existing anti-xenophobia strategies in South Africa and advocates for their revival. It also proposes the development of a pan-African framework and structure to deal with racism and xenophobia at the NEPAD continental level.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document