Abstract
Nearly two decades after the intermittent but protracted civil war in Angola, the country is still recovering from some of the long-term adverse effects of this strife. Extensive infrastructural destruction and socio-economic fluidity aggravate these long-term effects, threatening the efficacy and effectiveness of social protection (SP) services. Furthermore, Angola’s paradox stems from its oil-rich status on the one hand and extreme poverty for a large section of its population on the other. A third of the population depends on subsistence agriculture and needs vibrant SP programmes to sustain and supplement their income. It is within such milieus that the inadequacies and deficiencies of social protection systems inadvertently threaten to derail human rights goals. Moreover, global discourse often erroneously disregards the human rights implications and outcomes of social protection. For these reasons, this paper is premised on the argument that the efficacy of rights-based SP programmes is entrenched in effective monitoring and evaluation. The paper acknowledges that the processes of design and successful implementation of both the SP policies and programmes depend on an organisation’s methods of monitoring and evaluation. However, this paper acknowledges that monitoring and evaluation are inadvertently context-specific aspects whose success is embedded in but not limited to socio-political variables at play. For this reason, the article makes use of the Social Relations Framework (SRF) and Human Rights–Based Approach (HRBA) to understand the gendered nature of inequalities bred and perpetuated by a flawed SP system in Angola. This qualitative study uses a systematic review of literature to explore the role of monitoring and evaluation in SP steeped within the human rights realm. It forwards the correlation of a bottom-up and needs-based form of monitoring and evaluation through decentralisation and communities’ participation for the effectiveness of SP programmes.