The Uruguay Non-lending TechnicalAssistance (UY NLTA) for Uruguay was undertaken at therequest of the Government of Uruguay's Ministry ofSocial Development (MIDES).Following a devastatingfinancial and macroeconomic crisis in 2002, MIDES wasestablished with a view to coordinating social programs andproviding a safety net program for Uruguayans affected bythe crisis: the National Assistance Plan of Social Emergency(PANES), which was established in 2005. The objectives ofthe UY NLTA are to: (i) evaluate the impact of PANES socialemergency programs; (ii) inform a dialogue about the futurerole of social emergency programs and of MIDES as the leadauthority responsible for the coordination and oversight ofsocial policy in Uruguay, and (iii) strengthen MIDEScapacity to assess, monitor and evaluate social policy inUruguay, with considerable weight on participatoryapproaches to monitoring and evaluation.