Monitoring government policies A toolkit for civil society organisations in Africa

(identified via Source)

The toolkit was produced by AFOD, Christian Aid, Trocaire

This project was started by the three agencies with a view to supporting partner
organisations, particularly church-based organisations, to hold their governments to
account for the consequences of their policies. This toolkit specifically targets African

partners, seeking to share the struggles and successes of partners already monitoring

government policies with those that are new to this work.
The development of this toolkit has been an in-depth process. Two consultants were
commissioned to research and write the toolkit. They were supported by a reference group
composed of staff from CAFOD, Christian Aid and Trócaire and partner organisations with
experience in policy monitoring. The draft toolkit was piloted with partners in workshops
in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. Comments from the reference group and the
workshops contributed to this final version of the toolkit.

Contents

INTRODUCTION  1
CHAPTER ONE: GETTING STARTED
1.1  Core concepts in policy monitoring 5
1.2  Identifying problems, causes and solutions 8
1.3  Beginning to develop a monitoring approach 10
Interaction  13
CHAPTER TWO: CHOOSING POLICIES AND COLLECTING INFORMATION
2.1  Different kinds of policies 15
2.2  Which policies to monitor 18
2.3  Access to policy information  22
2.4  Collecting policy documents 24
Interaction   27
CHAPTER THREE: IDENTIFYING POLICY STAKEHOLDERS
3.1  Stakeholders of government policies 29
3.2  Target audiences and partners  31
3.3  Monitoring by a network of stakeholders 34
Interaction  37
CHAPTER FOUR: LOOKING INTO A POLICY AND SETTING YOUR FOCUS
4.1  Analysing the content of a policy 39
4.2  Defining your monitoring objectives 42
4.3  What kind of evidence do you need? 44
4.4 Choosing indicators 47
4.5  Establishing a baseline 50
Interaction  52
CHAPTER FIVE:ANALYSING POLICY BUDGETS
5.1  Budget basics  55
5.2  Resources for policy implementation 59
5.3 Budget analysis 61
5.4 Interaction  67

CHAPTER SIX: GATHERING EVIDENCE ON POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
6.1 Interviews  69
6.2 Surveys 72
6.3  Analysing survey data and other coded information 77
6.4  Workshops, focus group discussions and observation 84
Interaction  89
CONCLUSION: USING POLICY EVIDENCE TO ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE
Interaction  98
RESOURCES AND CONTACTS 100