The eleven week programme was sponsored by CDEMA through the Comprehensive Disaster Management - Harmonised Implementation Programme (CDM-HIP) with funding support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). In-kind support was also received from the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ).
Participants of the programme included senior personnel from National Disaster Offices of Participating States and the CDEMA Coordinating Unit who have been previously trained in Results Based Management and have been involved in facilitating training for CDM delivery across the region. Also included were representatives from two sub-sector committees (Agriculture and Civil Society) of the regional CDM Strategy governance council.
At the graduation ceremony held recently at the Baobab Towers in Barbados, Mr. Ronald Jackson, Executive Director, CDEMA, highlighted the timeliness of the programme and urged the participants to be champions of the M&E process.
“We are on the threshold of rolling out our 3rd CDM Strategy and CDEMA will be establishing an M&E Information systems to report on progress and developmental change from relevant investment. We therefore need to make sure that our national offices, sectors and stakeholders are on the same page in the delivery of CDM results. Further, we need to send a message to our governments of the importance of Monitoring and Evaluation,” Mr. Jackson stated.
The Executive Director of CDEMA also emphasized that, “Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Risk Management address a broader issue, that of accountability. It is how we spend our tax dollars and the contributions that are made to us through our donors and development partners. M&E is therefore a process that is poised to transform the culture of the Agency.”
Dr. Frederic Martin, Co-President of the Institute for Development in Economics and Administration (IDEA) who delivered remarks at the graduation ceremony also stressed the importance of M&E. He noted that “Monitoring and Evaluation is more than a technical tool, or feature or fashion. It is really about, how we manage an organization, a country or a region”.
Results Based Management is the recommended approach for the implementation of the regional CDM strategy. As such, the programme curriculum focused on this approach through the delivery of three certificate courses in the areas of: Implementation Monitoring of Public Programmes and Projects; Evaluation of Development Policies, Programmes and Projects; and Information Systems for Monitoring and Evaluation.