Mid-Term Evaluation of Financial Management Improvement Programme (FMIP) – Phase III

The general objective of this assignment is to contribute to the enhancement of South Africa’s public finance management (PFM) system which is an essential part of the development process. Sound PFM encourages aggregate fiscal discipline, operational efficiency and strategic allocation. These elements are critical to achieving the public policy objectives inscribed in the 2030 National Development Plan.

The Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) is a requirement of the Financing Agreement (FA) which governs the FMIP III Programme. The main purpose of the assignment is to establish the extent to which the FMIP III is progressing compared to the plan, and to draw conclusions and make recommendations on the future orientation of the program. A specific intended outcome of the assignment is to ascertain whether FMIP’s III organizational, institutional, individual and stakeholder technical interventions are contributing to the attainment (or not or partially) of the overall PFM Capacity Development Strategy (CDS) objectives as well as the national objectives utilizing the existing log-frame.

A team of experts will conduct a technical and operational assessment of the FMIP III interventions and their contribution to the achievement of the CDS objectives, using the revised log-frame and the OECD/DAC evaluation criteria – relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. Moreover, the team will assess four selected ETD (Education, Training and Development) interventions with the aim of developing a training assessment methodology and tool to be used to assess impact.

In order to achieve the objectives of the project, the experts will carry out the following: review background information, documents and reports on CDS and FMIP; review existing PFM legislative environment, monitoring reports and action plans; design an evaluation questionnaire and stakeholder interview plans; develop survey instruments; conduct interviews and working sessions in the regions with stakeholders and present final findings and reports of the evaluation and provide recommendations on further steps to be taken.

Project Background:

The Financial Management Improvement Programme (FMIP) Phases I, II and III, is a partnership programme of the National Treasury and the European Union and, including other donor contributions, has over recent years provided direct support to divisions within the National Treasury in leading and supporting PFM reform across the South African public sector.

A crucial element in the government’s financial management reform agenda is to strengthen the individual and organizational capacity of government institutions both in terms of technical capabilities and, equally importantly, in terms of a culture shift evidenced by strengthened work ethic, personal values, and professionalization within each financial discipline. Accordingly, the National Treasury developed a comprehensive CDS for PFM. The strategy provides a nationwide perspective across all spheres of government to address financial management capacity constraints in the public sector.