A total of 38 participants from 14 agencies completed the sixth run of the course on basic monitoring and evaluation conducted by the Development Academy of the Philippines’ Center for Governance last September 10-12 in Pasig City.

The course is a regular public offering of the Academy, which aims to equip government employees with necessary skills and knowledge in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of programs and projects.  It also aims to enable them to perform quantitative assessment of their programs and projects using various tools.

A panel of distinguished experts in the field shared their experiences from the academe, national government agencies, and international non-government organizations.  They included Jesse T. David, Editha V. Maslang, Jalton G. Taguibao, Adelina H. Velasco, Emmanuel M. Fallaria, Robinson F. Espinoza, and Rudini T. Baoy.

The resource persons lectured on topics such as M&E’s importance in the government sector, its concepts and principles, the logical framework, introduction to the types of M&E such as progress, results, and participatory and M&E data collection and analysis.

On the last day of the course, the class had a dialogue with M&E practitioners from the Department of Agrarian Reform and the National Youth Commission.  The members of the class were also taught how to communicate M&E results effectively and how to craft an M&E plan that fits their envisioned goal for their agencies.

As part of their learning, the participants prepared the problem and solution trees of their chosen programs and projects.  They also presented and critiqued their M&E plans to monitor and evaluate their respective logical frameworks.

The agencies represented in the training were the Office of the Regional Governor- Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Department of Budget and Management, Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, Department of Agrarian Reform, Social Security System, Newborn Screening Reference Center of the University of the Philippines Manila, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Interior and Local Government, Dangerous Drugs Board, Department of Trade and Industry, Light Rail Transit Authority, Philippine Trade Training Center, and National Security Council. – Stephanie Azarcon