Accountability Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria

Accountability Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria

3rd Annual National Conference, December 6-8, 2017

Call for Papers Deadline November 17, 2017

CONTEXT

Nigeria is among the signatories to the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and has as a result committed to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The SDGs are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN Member States have been using to frame their respective national agendas and political policies. The 17 goals cover a vast range of issues spanning human activity on earth: water use, energy, food and agriculture, health, sustainable consumption and production, industrialization, urbanization, education, inequality, poverty, and gender issues. The SDGs seek to build on and complete the unfinished business of the MDGs: realizing the human rights of all; achieving gender equality in all sectors and spheres of life; and importantly; striking a balance between economic, social and environmental dimensions of development.

National governments are responsible for the implementation and achievement of the SDGs, through their relevant institutions (working closely with stakeholders from civil society and the private sector) both nationally and sub-nationally. For Government to achieve the SDGs there is need for  a robust data collection, analysis and monitoring and evaluation system. These monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems are nationally-driven, and therefore Government commitment towards its efficiency is critical, particularly in – supporting how, (often limited) financial and technical resources will be allocated amongst different development priorities. 

The broad scope of the SDGs requires the involvement of almost all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), both nationally and sub-nationally. A key lesson learned from the MDG era is to avoid the “working in silo” mentality, whereby each MDA works on its own sector-specific studies with very little coordination between sectors. Particularly, the MBNP, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs), and the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). These MDAs must play key roles in ensuring the “mainstreaming” of the SDGs into new and existing government strategic plans and budgetary frameworks, and therefore require a strong collaborative framework.

It is critical that Government further refine and clarify the accountabilities among key institutions, so that coordination is effective, efforts and interventions are focused for maximum impact, and partnership is effective. To guide this process, Government will need to develop a comprehensive National Accountability Framework, through the engagement of relevant stakeholders across Government, the private sectors, and civil society.  The purpose of the Accountability Framework for monitoring and evaluating the development agenda is to:

• Improve coordination within the country, and specifically between different government offices for better planning, monitoring, evaluating and reporting at the national and sub-national level, and strengthened coordinating role of the national statistics office.
• Increase attention to the need for strengthening statistical capacity on development indicators, including the SDGs indicators.
• Develop of a strong partnership between the national and international development partners systems for the production of statistics for development indicators, including the SDG indicators, and for the improvement of statistical capacity and other reporting issues.
• Identify and explain of differences between national and sub-national institutions, and the roles and expectations in term of both results and financial and non-financial support.
• Develop of strong partnerships between Government and the private sector, civil society, and academic institutions; which will enable proper resourcing, structured capacity building for evaluation in the tertiary institutions and cascading of the SDG accountability framework to the sub-national level

Towards this end, the Ministry of Budget and  National Planning in Collaboration with OSSAP-SDGs and National Association of Evaluators (NAE) with support of UNICEF and UN sister agencies partners are holding a Conference on the key Monitoring and Evaluation issues that needs to be addressed for effective delivery of the SDGs, especially the needs for a National Accountability Framework and bringing key actors, professional from public and private sectors, intellectual and academia,  in which they can share their views and opinions on the proposed roles of Government Institutions and non-state actors within a National Accoutability Framework (NAF) governing the governing functions of Monitoring and Evaluation.  The proceeding of the conference is expected to feed the reflection of development partners and commit under this NAF SDGs.

THE CONFERENCE

The Nigeria Government, through the coordinated voice of Ministry of Budget and National Planning, working with the National Bureau of Statistic and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs have decided to come together under the aspices of Annual National conference of the Association of Nigeria Evaluators to discuss and brain-storm on issues relating to effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs in Nigeria.
The proposed conference will be organize into a number of substantive strands which are discussed in the following sections.

Potential presenters are invited to make a proposal for any one or more of these strands. General paper proposals on evaluation outside the theme of the strands are also invited. However there must be an added value on the evaluation practices, methods, advocacy and theories, as determined by the review committee.  It should be emphasized here that the Conference is intended to promote practical learning and examples, as well as theoretical or academic approaches etc. We especially invite papers that are grounded in development experiences in Nigeria specifically, while also welcoming other African experience or international that can add value designing an Accountability Framework for  Nigeria. The papers will describe, discuss, analyze, and argue about how evaluation efforts in Nigeria and learning from other places, what as been done and indeed what can be done differently to achieve the SDGs.

Conference Structure

The conference will be organized in twofold: A Pre-Conference Workshops and Lectures; and the Main Conference event.

The pre-conference program will comprise two concurrent half-day workshops in the morning; and four 2-hour Lectures (two lectures running concurrently) in the afternoon.
The Main Conference will consist of rich and diverse groupings of sessions, panel discussions, innovations showcase and open plenaries’ on critical evaluations issues related to the development of Nigeria and the evaluation practice. The break-out sessions will focus on:

Pre-Conference  Professional Workshops

The Professional development workshops precede the conference, and focus on helping attendees to learn or refine their skills related to the field of evaluation and evaluation methodologies. It will assist in helping those with little knowledge of evaluation to understand the principles and concepts of evaluation design. And provide opportunity for Nigerian evaluators to develop and enhance their skills in the most recent approaches and methods available.
Contact: naeconference2017@gmail.com

Conference Objectives:

• Create greater awareness, active participation and subsidiarity of evaluation initiatives at all tiers of Government.
• Promote evaluation practice in Nigeria contributing directly towards achieving Vision 20:2020 and the Africa 2063 Agenda and the SDGs.
• Provide a platform for the celebration of the United Nations 2015 International Evaluation Year by the Nigerian Evaluation Community and the Government of Nigeria.
• Launch and institutionalize Association of Nigerian Evaluators  (NAE) as the apex body and representative convergence platform of evaluation practice and regulation in Nigeria;
• Share knowledge and good practices of evaluation among members and  policy makers;
• Mobilize support towards institutionalization of evaluation in governance at all levels
• Strengthen communication and collaboration among evaluators nationally and internationally;
• Provide platform to share achievements and present best practices among monitoring and evaluation practitioners in Nigeria;
• Promote the role of Parliamentarians, Policy Makers, Civil Society and the Media in Evaluation practice.
• Promote sustainability of evaluation through innovative inclusive youth engagement 

1. Building Capacity for M&E:
   The strand seeks to build the capacity of State actors and Non-state actors on best practices in monitoring and evaluation to support effective and evidence-based policies and programs. The advantages of an efficient National M&E system are numerous, it include; fostering team building and ownership; it  increases the sustainability of the intervention and  it empowers decision making. The just concluded 2017 UNGASS identified that most countries especially African countries lack or have inadequate capacity to collect, analyse and make available timely data. Thus most decision made is not evidence-based. This situation has leads to poor upward accountability at the donor level and also affects the downward accountability to beneficiaries/primary stakeholders. This strand will share experiences on international best practices, tools and methodologies for achieving a vibrant and responsive monitoring and evaluation system that adequately supports the National accountability framework for achieving the SDGs. 
2. Lessons Learned/Experience from MDGs, Locally and Internationally
   The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was agreed by world leaders in September 2000 which is to be implemented for a period of 15 years has come and gone. Like every other global interventions, developed and developing  countries put systems in place in order to achieve the targets being set in achieving the goals. Many countries (both developed and  developing countries) have either recorded success or otherwise in the achievement of the set targets. Obviously the set targets were not met globally which has resulted the transposition of the MDGs into the SDGs which is to be implemented in another 15 years (2015 to 2030). This strand intends to examine countries who recorded successes and failures in the MDGs and document such and above all, share experiences to learn lessons so as to effectively and efficiently manage resources.
3. Partnership for SDGs
   There is this universal acknowledgement that, in current development strategies participation of all CSO stakeholders, including public representatives, government, private sector & NGOs, media, civil society, knowledge community and development partners are required and otherwise cannot be said for the SDGs.Furthermore, the implementation process and follow-up and review of progress will be critically important for the attainment of the SDGs and these cannot be left to the implementation agencies alone hence the need for active and effective partnering. This strand intends to examine the examine and analyze relevant stakeholders towards effective and active partnering in the implementation of the SDGs.
4. Resource Mobilization
   Due to scarce resources, it would not be possible for the Nigerian government solely to ensure necessary financing to implement and achieve the SDGs target; there are many reasons behind the lack of capacity in financing and the trend of illicit finance flow traps the government a shortfall situation in case of domestic resource mobilization effort .This strand intends to examine how resources (Financial and Non-financial) would be sourced and utilized effectively and efficiently towards the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.

Contact: naeconference2017@gmail.com

Guidelines for Proposals of Papers:

1. Each paper or panel proposal should be no more than 250 words. This proposal should provide the 1- title of the presentation(s), 2- the author(s), 3-the strand for which it is proposed, and a 4- summary of the subject and intention of the paper or panel. The information about the author should include name, gender, country, organization and contacts.
2. The date for submission of all proposals to the naeconference2017@gmail.com
3. Decisions on all proposals will be made within 2 weeks of deadline and presenters will be informed immediately.  For Scholarship full PowerPoint presentation will be required while the remaining will be provided upon full complete paper. Based on the previous experience, the scholarship will come up as a reimbursement. Participants requesting Scholarship should bear this in mind and plan accordingly.
4. The full PowerPoint presentation will be required by Nov 17 2017.

Presentation Types

Panel

This formal, thematic, 45- or 90-minute presentation focuses on attaining synergy amongst the key players in the SDGs Implementation, M&E framework. The overall abstract should describe how two (for a 45-minute panel), or more (for a 90-minute panel), panelists and possibly a discussant, will offer coordinated presentations and the general topic of the panel. In addition, the proposal must contain separate abstracts or summaries from each presenter describing his or her contribution to the session. At a minimum, the information in the ‘abstract’ section for each panelist should indicate the expertise or perspective that he or she brings to the panel (why is this person a panelist rather than someone else). The submitter is responsible for coordinating the presentations in advance. Panels should be interactive in that they allow for questions and discussion following the formal presentations. Proposal submission process and forms that are available on conference web site.
 
A panel opens with the chair introducing the panelists and the topic. Panels could be more of less structured with a set time for each panelist to speak. Panels end with an opportunity for attendees to raise questions or offer their own observations on what has been presented. Some panelists will employ audio visual aids to illustrate their key points and a computer, LCD projector, and screen are provided in each room in which a panel is scheduled. Proposal submission process and forms that are available on conference web site.

Paper

Paper presentations may be submitted, or as a pre-defined group of two or more papers on a common topic. The paper(s) upon which the presentation is based should be completed by the time of the conference. Papers submitted individually will be grouped with others on a common theme and will be allocated 15 minutes as part of either a 45- or 90-minute session. Papers submitted together will be assigned either to a 45-minute slot (for two papers) or a 90-minute slot (for more than two papers) and the proposer should allocate time among the multiple papers in a way that ensures that there is opportunity for audience questions. Paper abstracts should detail the focus of the paper and the way(s) in which it contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of evaluation in Nigeria primarily. Proposal submission process and forms that are available on conference web site.

Professional Development Workshop

These workshops will be for a whole day.  Each paper will be for two hours and thus provides a more in-depth exploration of a skill or area of knowledge, 2) presenters are not paid for their time and are expected to have significant experience both presenting and in the subject area, and 3) attendees pay separately for these workshops and are given the opportunity to evaluate the experience. Proposals submitted for Professional Development Workshops tend to have a significantly higher rejection rate than those submitted for other types of conference sessions.
 
Proposals submitted for Professional are reviewed by a special Professional Development Committee. The information required on the proposal form is also more extensive, including a listing of learning outcomes and an agenda. Professional Development Workshops use a special proposal submission process and forms that are available on conference web site.

Contact for the Conference Committee:
naeconference2017@gmail.com

Dr. Zakari  Lawal
Director Monitoring & Evaluation Department,
National Planning Commission,
The Presidency,
Nigeria.
zakarilawal@yahoo.com

Denis Jobin
Chief of M&E
UNICEF NIGERIA
djobin@unicef.org

Conference web site: http://sdgconference.org/