A Global Overview of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and its Meaning in the Local Government Context of South Africa

Abstract

The article explores the global overview of M&E from the ancient governance perspective that has been ignored by the modern government in the African contest. African M&E approach is required in the local rural municipalities due to its complex and diverse set of problems. These problems are as a result of leadership dichotomy which is witnessed between Amakhosi and municipal authorities. Amakhosi have a role to hold municipal authorities accountable from a Citizen-Based Approach.  The underlying philosophy of the article is not about the discourse of the modernists and traditionalists around the evolution of M&E, but is how and in what ways M&E should be designed and planned for the implementation of a successful relevant M&E approach for local rural municipalities. The article made use of secondary data, gathered from various sources. Case studies of the international countries were also sourced through desktop to ascertain their best practice on M&E. The article concludes that the lack of M&E approach for the local government in the rural municipalities requires the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) approach to allow stakeholders, including Amakhosi to assess the performance ofthe rural municipalities. The study is significant to the local and internal public scholarship of public administration since it bring approaches in M&E policy in the field of public administration. For example, indigenous African knowledge is critical in knowledge management.