Budgeting
Monitoring government policies: a toolkit for civil society organisations in Africa
Learning how to monitor government policies in Africa
Authors:
E. Coetzee; A. Schnell
Publisher:
International Budget Partnership, 2007
How can civil society organisations monitor government policies? This toolkit, which is directed towards civil society organisations (CSOs) in Africa, explores ways of working for change by monitoring government policies. It offers information, ideas, examples and methods on how to gather evidence about policies depending on where one lives and to use that evidence to press for change.
In particular it:
- gives a clear overview of what policy monitoring is
- builds on the experiences of others in Africa
- introduces key terms and methods that are used in policy monitoring
- offers ideas on how organisations or networks could plan activities to monitor policies.
The authors point out that there is no single blueprint for all policy monitoring work. Every monitoring project does not have to include all the steps outlined in this toolkit.
The toolkit is well structured and the outline matches the main steps of a typical policy monitoring process. Guidelines on how to use the toolkit will prove helpful for users who are new to using such a resource.
