An expert in the field of monitoring and evaluation, Oludotun Babayemi, has stressed the need for more evaluators to monitor government policies, projects and programmes to drive the provision basic amenities in the country.

Babayemi argued that once the country can monitor and evaluate some of the policies, projects, and programmes of the government, it can then start talking about the efficiency of building roads, schools, and hospitals among other basic amenities.

The monitoring and evaluation expert disclosed this at the graduation ceremony of eleven Young Impact Associates sponsored by Mastercard in collaboration with Preston, Global Integrity, and ITAD, on Friday, in Abuja.

The Chief Executive Officer of Clonehouse an organisation that provides technical assistance to government, foundations, and non-governmental organisations in the area of monitoring and evaluation, added that the country would accrue benefits when more evaluators are engaged.

He noted, “There is already a monitoring and evaluation policy in Nigeria, So, we need more people to be able to drive those policies either at the government, individual level or if you look at the environment itself in implementing those monitoring and evaluation policies. So, we think that these young people will be the drivers of Nigerian monitoring and evaluation policies because of its benefit to the country.

“Once we can monitor, and evaluate some of the policies, projects, and programmes of the government, what that means is that we can start talking about efficiency, in implementing programmes and policies. The roads that are being built in the country, how does it make sense, what is the outcome?

Remarking further, he said that effective monitoring would advance the country’s policy outcomes of established roads, learning output and other government programmes.

 “This is why we are developing these young people to be able to document some of these insights and share them with policy makers, as something for them to learn about what is working and what is not working, especially for the value chain of projects, policy, and programmes implementation,” he said.

The YIA programme is a one-year professional development and leadership training in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, initiated in 2022 for young African evaluators including Nigeria, between the ages of 23 and 35