The Department of Planning and Development, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, here on Wednesday unveiled annual monitoring and evaluation report 2010-2011. The report was disseminated in a function held here at a local hotel with Senior Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rahimdad Khan as chief guest on the occasion.
Director General Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Dilnawaz Khan presented the report to Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan, who also holds the portfolio of Planning and Development. Secretary Planning Saleem Khan, Director Reforms, Management and Monitoring Unit, Dr Ahsan-ul-Haq and other officers concerned were also present on this occasion.
The report covering the period July 2010 to June 2011 is in line with the comprehensive Development Strategy (CDS) priorities and the government's reform agenda. It has also focused on the priority sectors of Education, Health and Social Welfare, in which the Output-Based Budget (OBB) process has been piloted and which also featured prominently in the Post Crisis Needs Assessment (PCNA).
Addressing the ceremony, Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan termed the development of annual monitoring and evaluation report of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the fiscal year 2010-2011 a remarkable achievement of the present government. Such monitoring and evaluation reports, he said, were needed to provide information for continuous learning and planning as well as ensure accountability and transparency. The coalition government of the PPP and ANP, he said, was working together in the province to achieve these common objectives.
The senior minister recalled that Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti in his maiden address after taking the vote of confidence had identified the absence of an effective provincial monitoring and evaluation system a weakness that needed to be addressed.
The senior minister said that the comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework approved by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January 2011 sought to address some of these challenges by bringing the various components of oversight and public accountability under one umbrella that was the Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Planning and Development Department.
The provincial government, he said, was very keen and committed to strengthening the monitoring role of line departments at all tires. The secretaries of departments had a key role in making sure that the recommendations given in this report were acted upon and their compliance should be periodically monitored by the directorate general M&E of the Planning and Development Department, he added.
The development of the report, he said, was in line with the vision and manifesto of the coalition partners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to improve public service delivery in the province. He said that the coalition government had emphasised the importance of monitoring and evaluation from day one.
The analysis and trends provided in this report would guide the government institutions to improve their strategic and development planning, resource allocation and budgeting for the next implementation periods, he said. He urged the government departments concerned for formation of committees to look into the issues highlighted and considered the recommendations made in this report to improve institutional performance of the provincial government.
The committees, he said, should develop action plans to work on agreed-upon recommendations in close consultation with the Directorate General, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Planning and Development Department while the inputs of the civil society should also be included in developing these departmental action plans.