ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) has launched an online Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) portal for collecting, analyzing, and sharing real-time data among technical and vocational institutions in the region.
The portal will also be used by various stakeholders including policy and decision-makers, and development partners for informed data-driven decision making. It is expected to improve the availability of quality and relevance of data collected from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutes in the region.
The availability of accurate and reliable data is one of the major challenges facing higher education institutions in East Africa. For instance, the Demographics of African Faculty in the East African Community (DAF-EAC) study undertaken by IUCEA together with a consortium of partners published in 2023, established that there were challenges in accessing quality and reliable data on higher education in the region. According to the study, there is inadequate documentation and lack of centralized data collection and sharing systems within countries in the region. The M&E Portal launched by IUCEA is therefore a significant step in addressing the challenge of quality and reliable data in the region.
Speaking at the launch of the portal, the Deputy Executive Secretary of IUCEA, Prof. Idris A. Rai, said: “The portal will create a more structured and organized approach to data collection and management among TVET institutions. As part of the EASTRIP Project, TVET institutes will be trained on how to maintain accurate records to enhance the quality and reliability of the data collected. The data collected will be consolidated in the central portal to make it easily accessible to policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders in higher education”.
The portal was developed by a team of IT Experts from Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), one of IUCEA member Institutions, and a beneficiary of the World Bank-funded EASTRIP Project. DIT is Regional Flagship TVET Institute in ICT.
The Principal of DIT, Prof. Preksedis M. Ndomba expressed gratitude to the World Bank Group for the financial support through the EASTRIP project and to IUCEA for giving DIT the opportunity and trust to develop the portal that enhance project monitoring and evaluation.
Prof. Rai said: “Our collaboration with DIT has resulted in the development of an M&E portal that will not only enable us to effectively monitor and evaluate our projects, but also pave the way for the development of an integrated regional Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS)” at IUCEA Secretariat in Kampala Uganda.
Over the next three days, the M&E officers from TVET institutes supported by East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) will undergo hands-on capacity building to learn how to operate the portal effectively. They will be trained on data entry, analysis, and report generation to enhance their skills and expertise in project monitoring and management.
The development of the portal was supported by EASTRIP Project funded by the World Bank.
