Primary Education Survey Evaluation Report Somalia - Somali - JNA

PES Evaluation Report, 2008
H. CONCLUSION: FUTURE STEPS TOWARDS AN EMIS
It has been noted that currently UNICEF is committed to providing technical support in the areas of
Planning and EMIS. These resources need to be integrated closely with the experience and support
mechanisms being recommended here.
It is suggested that an EMIS unit is established within a Directorate of Planning and Statistics of each
Zone Ministry. The EMIS unit would be staffed by:
• EMIS Coordinator
• EMIS data base manager
• Five data entry and retrieval staff
• Two secretarial and administrative assistants
The unit would have the assistance of technical support responsible for assisting the EMIS coordinator
and data base manager in planning development of the unit and the capacity development of the staff of
the unit.
The capacity development would have to take place in the areas of:
• Relational data base design and construction.
• Data form design in Access
• Data entry, cleaning and validation
• Design and use of Access queries
• Design and generation of Access reports
• Use of front end software to generate flexible reports and provision of specialist information
• Use of mapping software
• Design, Management and implementation of the EMIS process
• Linking of the EMIS unit with the Planning arms of the Directorate
From this list it can be seen that the technical assistance will need to be in place for a considerable length
of time. While accurate estimates of this time frame are difficult, a minimum of five years should be
planned for.
While it has been recommended that capacity building structures are improved to include, along with
training, the opportunity to gain experience in complex tasks within a supportive environment, there is a
need to emphasis that the Ministries have some additional responsibilities. It is essential that they identify
suitable qualified focal points and the necessary support staff to undertake these duties. Some of the
current practices of people working without salary will threaten sustainability. In addition, the appointed
staff must be adequately supervised to ensure the achievement of set goals and targets and a professional
work ethic in terms of hours worked and commitment to the organisation. Without these qualities in the
EMIS staff no capacity building exercises can be expected to impact significantly on the organisation.
The approach being assumed is that the PES is an early step towards the development of an EMIS,
supervised and administered by MoEs. This was the understanding that emerged in 1997 and there have
been some tentative steps towards this autonomy since, but there does not seem to have been developed a
comprehensive transition plan. The tentative steps include provision of computing hardware, training of
enumerators, use of access data base etc. More recently plans have emerged for technical assistance to be
provided for further capacity development and with the provision of buildings etc. The challenge will be
to adequately assess the rate of development of the capacity of the MoEs to ensure sustainability of the
desired autonomous EMIS.
There needs to be some agreement as to precisely what aspirations there are in the development of an
EMIS. The language of EMIS is being used in a number of different ways that seem at odds with
international standard use of the term. To assist in addressing this issue a conceptual framework (see
40