The Twende Mbele program scoping mission in Niger was conducted under favorable conditions and provided a synoptic view of the country’s monitoring and evaluation system. It has yielded satisfactory results as relates to the terms of reference, and offers interesting prospects for the future of an evaluation system in Niger. Authorities and representatives of governmental agencies were helpful and cooperative, and are identified as actors in the development chain. The team observed an awareness of M&E issues, the issues involved, and the need to create an effective system in Niger. It was also observed that, in addition to a general awareness, there is strong political commitment at the highest level of government. Two major areas of cooperation were noted by the team and will be submitted to the Twende Mbele management committee, these consist of: capacity building for M&E actors and support for the creation of an effective M&E system, but more importantly the institutionalization of public policy evaluation in Niger. The goal of this initiative is to expand peer learning with other potential program partners in Africa. The visits assess the level of M&E institutionalization in each country and the degree of governmental commitment to use evaluation as a performance tool. The program’s methodological approach for program scale-up looks to first categorize potential partner countries as to the maturity of their national M&E systems and then to analyze the reality on the ground as compared to the expressed commitment of candidate countries.
