Moving towards Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 : ethical considerations for public service M&E practitioners

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, listing the required Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The African Union endorsed the 2063 Agenda, the continent’s shared strategic framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development. The public service in Africa, as globally, is under pressure to produce and show outcomes as a measure of government’s effectiveness in meeting these goals. Genuine change requires critical self-reflection. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of government performance is essential to document and report on performance, promote learning and improvement. M&E is a mechanism to assess and analyse pre-determined levels of performance, and to report progress on the adoption of performance information. The National Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (NMES) contribute to the establishment of a continuous improvement culture in service delivery and feed information into SDG and Agenda 2063 implementation reports. M&E is an effective public administration tool to plan, coordinate, document and share results effectively and timeously, as translated into ministerial/departmental, and sectional units of project M&E systems and plans. The article argues that the capacity of public service human resources is key in the M&E function and agenda. Ethics in M&E processes enhance M&E systems to underpin national priorities and collect information that feeds into M&E of global strategies such as SDGs and Agenda 2063.