The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) collaborate to build an IT supported Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System for the Ministry and develop individual and institutional capacity to operate, maintain and use data for improved planning, programming and decision making. The “MAF M&E System – Challenges and Opportunities” Conference was held at the MAF on the 18^th of June. The conference was chaired by His Excellency Joaquim José Gusmão Dos Reis Martins, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and co-chaired by Mr. Stephan Rudgard, FAO Representative for Indonesia and Timor-Leste and Mr. Macmillan Anyanwu, the World Bank (WB) Representative for Timor-Leste.

The Conference started with a remark by Mr. Stephan Rudgard of FAO, who underlined that implementation of the M&E system is an opportunity for the MAF to introduce a systemic change in the organisational culture of the Ministry. M&E system is developed inside the Ministry and for the Ministry, and focuses on supporting planning, monitoring and reporting processes. 

The second speaker, Mr. Macmillan Anyanwu, Representative of the WB, talked about the importance of using IT supported M&E tools to collect and process data necessary for decision making. He congratulated the graduates of the training and expressed his hopes that they will contribute to building the M&E system at the MAF.  

H.E. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries congratulated the staffs and said, “I hope all the Directorates General and National will collaborate with the M&E team in order to speed up development of the M&E system”. He underlined that the next 6-7 months are crucial for building the system, as the technical work must be done by each Directorate.

A presentation was led by Ms. Kate Czaplicka, Project Coordinator & Management Information System Expert of FAO elaborating on the M&E related challenges faced by the Ministry. She explained how these challenges can be overcome by implementation of the IT supported M&E system and what are the opportunities and advantages of the system for the Ministry. Ms. Anita Ximenes, from the National Directorate of Research, MAF spoke on behalf of the M&E training graduates. She explained the M&E learning process from the staff’s perspective and how it was linked to the M&E system development. Mr. Trevor Connolly Carbo, IT/MIS Consultant of FAO and Ms. Isabel Soares Pereira, M&E Expert of FAO shared an informative step-by-step introduction to the M&E system using a case study of the Directorate National of Veterinary.

The conference was closed with the M&E Training Graduation Ceremony - 43 staff of MAF who completed the training were honored by H.E. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and heads of partner agencies (WB, FAO and EU) and received graduation certificates. 

The MAF M&E Project is implemented under the “Timor-Leste: Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project”, funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and implemented by the MAF under the supervision of the WB. The project is focused on two core areas; development of an IT supported M&E System and building individual and institutional capacity to operate, maintain and use data for improved planning, programming and decision making. The expected outcome of the project is that MAF will use the developed M&E system to inform evidence-based policy planning and decisions.