Using monitoring and evaluation to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa

This policy brief explores how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) can be used to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa. Based on six case studies, it identifies four key enablers: contextualized learning, inclusive processes, increased agency for Global South actors in M&E design, and institutional arrangements that ensure long-term data ownership. The brief argues that M&E is a tool of power and advocates for a shift from funder-driven compliance to locally-led, reflexive systems that empower marginalized communities.

• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is fundamentally linked to power dynamics, as choices regarding what is monitored, who collects the data, and the criteria for success determine whether the process promotes equity and resilience or reinforces dominance and exclusion.
• To promote equity, M&E must move beyond external practitioners applying 'best practices' and instead cultivate a reflexive learning culture where people and organisations embedded in the local context learn to identify and change factors contributing to vulnerability and inequity.
• Inclusive M&E processes—which involve non-technical staff, participants, and partners—can generate transformative co-benefits including increased personal agency, improved collaboration, and greater sensitivity to implementation realities, though they require more time, cost, and capacity building.
• Global South organisations often face restrictive compliance and reporting requirements from multilateral funders that prioritize the funder's needs over local learning; there is a need for these organisations to negotiate alternative M&E systems that meet both funder and organisational needs.
• Short-term 'project-model' funding undermines locally-led development by creating fragmented M&E requirements and restricting data ownership. Long-term continuity and stable core funding are necessary for local organisations to retain data and demonstrate cumulative long-term impacts.
• The South African government's Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) has introduced a Guideline on Transformative Equity to mainstream a transformative equity criterion into government evaluations, addressing the fact that standard OECD/DAC evaluation criteria do not explicitly cover equity.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2023). Using monitoring and evaluation to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-toolkit_me_21-nov.pdf

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Using monitoring and evaluation to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa. 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-toolkit_me_21-nov.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Using monitoring and evaluation to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa |date=September 2023 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-toolkit_me_21-nov.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalresiliencepartnership2023using, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Using monitoring and evaluation to build transformative equity and resilience in South Africa}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-toolkit_me_21-nov.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }