Over the years, various reform initiatives have been implemented to engender results-orientation in the Philippine
bureaucracy, along with the emphasis to integrate good governance agenda within all components of the public
sector management (PSM) cycle. Among these initiatives was the crafting of the 2011-2016 Philippine Development
Plan and its accompanying Results Matrices, which set out the results to be achieved towards inclusive growth and
poverty reduction. Another example would be in the budgeting phase of the PSM cycle, wherein a review of the
major final outputs, performance indicators, programs, projects, and activities was initiated to ensure consistency
with the agencies’ mandates. With these efforts, there was likewise a greater clamour for evidence-based decisions
within the policy process, as the government endeavoured to focus more on results.

To address this challenge, the Philippine government embarked on the development of a national evaluation policy
framework (NEPF). This policy framework aimed to outline the systematic, purposive, and impartial conduct of
evaluations in the public sector in support of good governance, transparency, and accountability.
On 15 July 2015, the NEPF was signed into effect as a joint memorandum circular between the National Economic
and Development Authority and the Department of Budget and Management. This NEDA-DBM Joint Memorandum
Circular (JMC) 2015-01 provides a framework for the purposive conduct of evaluations in the public sector in
support of good governance, transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making.

This year, the M&E forum is therefore deemed as the most appropriate setting to initiate discourse in preparation for the JMC’s implementation. With CY 2015 declared as the National Evaluation Year during the Third International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities, discussion related to readiness for JMC implementation is also in line with the Evaluation Year’s advocacy and promotion of evaluation and evidence-based policy making from the international to the local levels.