China and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are working jointly in support of other members in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to monitor and evaluate their poverty-reduction efforts, ADB said in a press release on Tuesday.
ADB will manage a technical assistance grant of 500,000 U.S. dollars funded by China to help countries in the subregion develop results-based monitoring and evaluation systems used in assessing efforts to reduce poverty, the release said.
The grant, approved in September under the Regional Cooperation and Poverty Reduction Fund, will be used to assist Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to enhance skills, resources and systems for results-based monitoring and evaluation. Funding under the grant is expected to be completed in October 2009.
"Strong national and sector systems for monitoring and evaluation are necessary to assess efforts to reduce poverty, and to demonstrate results," said Keith Leonard, an operation director of the multilateral finance institution, adding that such systems are one avenue for improving performance in terms of the quality, quantity and targeting of goods and services.
The technical assistance grant will be used to raise proficiency in monitoring and evaluation, conduct research on evaluation capacity development and increase knowledge sharing.
GMS countries have recognized the shortcomings of their monitoring systems, Olivier Serrat, an evaluation specialist of ADB, said in the release. The technical assistance will provide related knowledge products and services, he added.
Staff of selected agencies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam from the ministries of finance or planning, public service commissions, other key agencies and relevant elements of civil society groups will receive training in Shanghai as part of the grant, the bank said.
The Greater Mekong Subregion comprises Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 1992, the six countries entered into a program of subregional economic cooperation, designed to enhance economic relations among the countries.
Source: Xinhua
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