Monitoring government policies

An introduction to policy monitoring as a way of working against poverty.

It introduces terms and methods that are used in policy monitoring and offers ideas on how you could work together in your organisation or network to plan a policy monitoring project of your own. Demystifying policy documents (p.27) is a tool that helps feel more confident about extracting information from policy documents. Tool 6 (p.33) supports mapping of partners and identification of target audiences.

This toolkit is tailored for African partner organisations. The structure matches the main steps of a typical policy monitoring process. A useful introduction for people with little or no former experience in influencing or monitoring government policies, and for organisations committed to economic justice or keen to strengthen accountability at any level of government. Tools can be used by individuals conducting their own research, collectively with small project teams or with larger stakeholder groups such as the members of a community.

Skills and resources required: Little or no former experience in influencing. To adapt tools to a specific country or organisational context, an experienced facilitator with basic understanding of policy influencing may be useful. The use of some tools will depend on access to reliable policy information.