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Monitoring and evaluating the National Plan of Action for Children (NPA) and the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Plan of Action lies within the responsibilities and mandate outlined in the law of the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA). The law includes the Councilأ¢â‚¬â„¢s contribution to policy setting measures and development of plans related to the family and its members, and monitoring the implementation of these plans. The NCFA, therefore, has to continuously coordinate with all partners and agencies to monitor achievements and challenges faced when implementing the NPA.

To guarantee that the monitoring and evaluation process forms an integral part of the NPA, impact and process indicators were defined to measure progress. For each activity in the logical framework of the NPA, a column for the indicators, and another column for the source of verification for each indicator were included.

The ECD Plan of Action was integrated into the NPA under component two, أ¢â‚¬إ“Development and Strengthening Capabilitiesأ¢â‚¬â€Œ. Monitoring the ECD Plan of Action will, therefore, be conducted within the NPA monitoring and evaluation framework.

In the NPA framework, moreover, all activities were logically coded and numbered to ensure easy reference during the monitoring and evaluation process, and during reporting on progress achieved and challenges faced. In addition, a draft integrated monitoring and evaluation plan was drawn and enclosed in the main document, in addition to a draft matrix to be used by all partner agencies in reporting on achievements and constraints in the implementation of the Plan.

Monitoring and Evaluation Process:

A technical committee will monitor and evaluate the NPA under the umbrella of the NCFA with representation from the Ministries of Planning and International Cooperation, Health, Education, Social Development, Interior, Labor, Culture, and the Department of Statistics. Members will also represent the Higher Councils for Media and Youth as well as children, youth, the academia, non-governmental organizations, UNICEF and a monitoring and evaluation expert. The NCFA, represented by its Childhood, and Monitoring and Evaluation Units, will coordinate the work of the Committee and record its deliberations.
A focal person from the ministries and main participating agencies will be appointed to follow-up on the implementation and monitoring of the Plan. The focal persons will be given trained, if necessary, on monitoring and evaluation in general, and on the NPA monitoring mechanisms, in particular.
An annual plan will be prepared for the ministries and institutions. This plan stems from the NPA, and will be integrated into the annual plans of these ministries and institutions.
Unified monitoring forms, based on the structure of the Plan (copy included in the Arabic version of the National Plan of Action for Children) will be compiled, in coordination with the focal persons from the main ministries and institutions.
The NCFA will compile all reports submitted by the ministries and institutions, within a special database designed by NCFA's Monitoring and Evaluation Unit.
Annual progress reports will be submitted to the NCFA's Board of Trustees. Achievements, challenges and measures that must be taken to overcome such challenges will be discussed in the meetings of the technical committee.
A review of the responsibilities of the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, as well as of monitoring and evaluation tools will be done periodically and updates will be carried out, based on lessons learnt.