The
European Union (EU) and the NSG in South Africa concluded an agreement for a
“Public Service
Training
and Capacity Building Programme” to be implemented by the NSG with an objective
of as-
sisting
the state in fulfilling its developmental and transformative role, notably
through improving ser-
vice
delivery. The specific objective of the Programme is “To improve public sector
capacity through education, training and development by the NSG”. The NSG therefore needed to strengthen its
internal capacity to reach out to the entire public service and meet their
training and development needs.
The
“Public Service Training and Capacity Building Programme” is supporting the
capacity building
of
the NSG, among others, and has four result areas:
Result Area 1 – Improved systems development and HR capacity
for the NSG to fulfil its training and development Result Area 2 – Strengthened research and curriculum
development for increased responsiveness and relevance of training and
development in meeting the needs of the public sector Result Area 3 – Improved efficacy of the public sector
workplace through training and development
Result Area 4 – Strengthened NSG through collaboration and
strategic partnerships at domestic, regional and international levels
A
Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) exercise was undertaken in 2018 and it
provided findings on
the
relevance and the indicators used for the programme. The report found that the
“Public Service Training and Capacity Building Programme” was relevant and
responded to the needs of the target groups and end beneficiaries. The action
was also found to be well adapted to the institutional, human, and financial
capacities of the NSG.
The
ROM report however also stated that the indicators were not well defined and
not relevant to
measure
the achievement of objectives. None of the four “Result Areas” had outcome
indicators to
measure
delivery within each of the specific Result Areas. Further, the ROM report
stated that there
were
too many indicators and some of them were defined as activities or as outputs,
which made it
difficult
to measure tangible outcomes.
Despite
the ROM report, the log frame was not updated.
Against
this background, the main objectives of this evaluation are to provide the
relevant services
of
the European Union, to interested stakeholders and the wider public.
This
evaluation will serve to monitor progress and inform future programme design
for the NSG providing:
an overall independent assessment of the performance of the
Public Service Training and Capacity Building Programme, paying particular
attention to its different levels of results, measured against its expected
objectives and the reasons underpinning such results specify key lessons which can be learned and conclusions and
recommendations to improve future interventions In
addition, the evaluation will serve to:
understand how far actions have promoted or are promoting a
rights-based approach, conflict sensitivity, diversity and gender equality; make recommendations on how to improve the (use of) Theories
of Change (ToC) of projects; assess how project outputs and outcomes
contribute to the achievement of impact and make recommendations for
improvement where necessary/useful.