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Evaluating Development Aid: Issues, Problems and Solutions
Abstract
Incl. bibl., index.
... Sin embargo, el "enfoque MED" sigue predominando cuando se evalúan cuestiones de género y el uso del "enfoque GED" en la evaluación de todo tipo de acciones de desarrollo sigue siendo reducido. Como se expone al final de esta comunicación, todavía son muchas las dificultades a las que hace frente el desarrollo de evaluaciones sensibles al género (HUNT Y BROUWERS, 2003;CRACKNELL, 2000;CAD, 1998). ...
... "Sin embargo, el avance general hacia la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en todas las evaluaciones de la ayuda al desarrollo ha sido lento y desigual" (HUNT y BROUWERS, 2003:10). El interés creciente en la evaluación de género no se ha traducido aún en la calidad y profundidad del tratamiento de las cuestiones de género en los procesos evaluativos donde existe aún un amplio espacio para la mejora (MURGUIALDAY, VÁZQUEZ Y GONZÁLEZ, 2008;DE WAAL, 2006;CRACKNELL, 2000). ...
... Por el contario, es frecuente que, si no se menciona la igualdad de género en los objetivos originales en la planificación, la perspectiva de género sea tratada de modo superficial o bien quede ignorada en el resto de las fases de la intervención. Las cuestiones de género, por tanto, son consideradas con frecuencia como accesorias en la evaluación (CRACKNELL, 2000;CAD, 1998). ...
Desde la década de los setenta, la ayuda oficial al desarrollo ha llevado a cabo diferentes iniciativas para reducir la desigualdad entre mujeres y hombres. Sin embargo, la práctica de desarrollo en materia de igualdad ha generado resultados insuficientes y, en ocasiones, contradictorios. En la presente comunicación se profundiza en la evaluación sensible al género como una herramienta clave para asegurar una ayuda de calidad que promueva, en efecto, la igualdad de género.
... This is very important, because research sustainability will likely be compromised if the stakeholder's values are ignored (Abeyratne, 2010). Now, whether or not the stakeholders themselves will participate in monitoring and evaluation has been a matter of discussion, asking what degree of involvement a researcher can have with that which is being evaluated and still be an appropriate evaluator (Cracknell, 2000). ...
... Such negotiation gives stakeholders opportunities for empowerment and education. The goal is a real participatory method rather than donor-dominant practices (Cracknell, 2000). As Patton states, "the best way to be sure that evaluation is targeted at the personal concerns of the stakeholders is to involve them actively at every stage of the evaluation" (cited by Cracknell, 2000). ...
... The goal is a real participatory method rather than donor-dominant practices (Cracknell, 2000). As Patton states, "the best way to be sure that evaluation is targeted at the personal concerns of the stakeholders is to involve them actively at every stage of the evaluation" (cited by Cracknell, 2000). This demonstrates respect for the dignity and integrity of beneficiaries, welcoming everyone's contribution, so that the participants continue to be treated as human, not as objects of experimentation (Guba and Lincoln, 1989). ...
The changing language policy in education is part of a rising movement around the
world to support mother tongue instruction in the early years of a child‘s education. In Asia, this is apparent in a growing number of educational programs that use the mother tongue approach. Considering its current implementation, however, the linguistic and cultural diversity of Mindanao especially on Iligan brings much complexity in terms of its implementation. With more than 26 provinces and over 25 million population in Mindanao (Philippine Statistics Authority. 8 June 2005), the program brings challenging situation in terms of language policy in the locality. The current study relatively addresses this problem.
... Evaluation has been increasingly gaining concern among the development stakeholders. The concept of evaluation has emerged with the initiation of development in the 1950s across the world but became more profound during the 1970s and 1980s (Cracknell, 2000). Initially, evaluation was considered primarily as a tool to ensure the use of fund and measure the achievements but not in view of learning and accountability. ...
... All this supports the statement that Nepal's evaluation policy is in an evolving phase yet to be formalized (Parliamentarians Forum on Development Evaluation in South Asia/EvalPartners, 2015). While developing evaluation policy, it is essential to consider the fast-growing nature of development evaluation (Cracknell, 2000) and to contextualize the evaluation policy for a professional development of evaluation. ...
The role of evaluation is highly emphasized for evidence-based policy making and effective development governance. However, there is inadequacy of research that assesses the evaluation policy and practice in Nepal. Ritually, one can find the evaluation term being used in conjunction with monitoring in Nepal. Drawing data from literature reviews and self-professional experience of its author, this article argues that the evaluation policy is yet in a primary stage, the practice is uneven and evaluation capacity both at demand and supply side is lagging far behind its professionalism to create an enabling institutional environment of evaluation. Hence, this article tries to explore the evaluation in Nepal with shedding light on the challenges and opportunities facing Nepal's evaluation ecosystem, examining its progress and the road ahead.
... The commissioning of consultants is used as a relatively controlled and repeatable technique for "operationalizing accountability" (Aho 1985;Brenneis 2006: 44; see also Power 1996), but not only is it based on simplistic notions of objectivity, it has problematic consequences for evaluations. In common with Chouinard (2013) and Cracknell (2000), my analysis found inherent weaknesses in premising the legitimacy of evaluations on "a detached and neutral role for evaluators" (Chouinard 2013: 244). While evaluation consultants are professionals who are commissioned to provide truthful accounts of a project, there is a need to critically engage with the assumptions and limitations of the idea that consultant evaluators can provide absolute objectivity. ...
... Patton suggests that the differences between paradigms can be seen as between two opposing positions: one that sees change as being driven by experts in a top-down process of evaluation to identify blue-print solutions; and the other that involves bottom-up, locally-driven identification of problems and solutions, and judgements about the successes and value of changes (2011: 152-187). While the former is the normalised approach to development evaluation, according to Cracknell (2000), and continuing through to the present time, the trend towards participatory methods is the most significant change taking place in the field of evaluation, which is due to the paradigmatically opposed epistemological views about rigour and validity of evidence (Armytage 2011: 270-273;Chouinard 2013: 244). Participation has a long association with the C4D and CfSC (Communication for Social Change) fields, where communication and participation have been argued to be two sides of the same development coin (Fraser & Restrepo-Estrada [1998. ...
While some form of evaluation has always been a requirement of development projects, in the media assistance field this has predominantly been limited to very basic modes of counting outputs, such as the number of journalists trained or the number of articles produced on a topic. Few media assistance evaluations manage to provide sound evidence of impacts on governance and social change. So far, most responses to the problem of media assistance impact evaluation collate evaluation methodologies and methods into toolkits. This paper suggests that the problem of impact evaluation of media assistance is understood to be more than a simple issue of methods, and outlines three underlying tensions and challenges that stifle implementation of effective practices in media assistance evaluation. First, there are serious conceptual ambiguities that affect evaluation design. Second, bureaucratic systems and imperatives often drive evaluation practices, which reduces their utility and richness. Third, the search for the ultimate method or toolkit of methods for media assistance evaluation tends to overlook the complex epistemological and political undercurrents in the evaluation discipline, which can lead to methods being used without consideration of the ontological implications. Only if these contextual factors are known and understood can effective evaluations be designed that meets all stakeholders' needs.
... Assim, os anos 1980 constituem uma primeira fase de institucionalização de unidades especificamente dedicadas à função de avaliação nas agências bilaterais. Para muitos avaliadores, esse período foi o boom da avaliação na área de ajuda ao desenvolvimento (Cracknell, 2000), ainda que não tenha sido acompanhado de esforços significativos para desenvolver a teoria e metodologia de avaliação (Cracknell, 1988). O desejo de garantir a independência das avaliações era lógico, uma vez que a avaliação tinha agora a função de melhorar a eficácia da ajuda e justificar a condicionalidade, questões que tinham estado ausentes nas décadas de 1960 e 1970 dada a confiança generalizada nos benefícios da ajuda. ...
... Por outro lado, dada a condicionalidade da ajuda à boa governação, era importante desenvolver métodos para avaliar a contribuição da ajuda na sua promoção. Como resultado, o BM desenvolveu, na década de 1990, uma metodologia para a avaliação da capacitação institucional (Tobelem, 1992), foram elaborados guias com conjuntos de indicadores para avaliar a governação do Estado e todas as avaliações passaram a integrar a análise da sustentabilidade e do desenvolvimento institucional, por serem vistos como critérios importantes para o sucesso ou fracasso dos projetos (Cracknell, 2000). Outros aspetos do desenvolvimento que os avaliadores precisavam de ter em conta e que colocaram desafios metodológicos foram o impacto ambiental e o género. ...
This thesis analyses the institutionalization process of evaluation in the Portuguese
development cooperation, between 1994 (the year in which the evaluation was integrated in the cooperation agency) and 2012 (the year in which IPAD merged with the Camões Institute). The key research question is: how the institutionalization of evaluation took place in the Portuguese development cooperation? To answer this question, a literature review and a desk analysis have been conducted. A survey and several semi-structured interviews with Portuguese cooperation actors have also been carried out. Based on the policy transfer theory, it starts from the hypothesis of an incomplete transfer, driven by external actors.
Although there is a broad research on evaluation use, there is a research gap regarding the Portuguese reality. There is also no research based on policy transfer theory. This research seeks to contribute to fill these gaps, developing a model that identifies the factors that influence the institutionalization of evaluation in the Portuguese development cooperation.
The results show that, despite the internal and, above all, the external determinants, the nature of the policy, the organizational/institutional context and the evaluation system adopted had an influence on the institutionalisation of the evaluation, in particular its use in the decision-making process.
The results of this research are a contribution to the understanding of the institutionalization of evaluation in development cooperation organizations and a basis for future research. The conclusions can provide evidence to the cooperation professionals, guide the evaluation practice and promote its use in the decision-making process.
... Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de PNUD (2001), Cracknell (2000), Dale (1998) y Bamberger (1997. ...
... El contacto con las mujeres es difícil y éstas no se expresan con libertad cuando hay hombres delante. Este hecho se acentúa en los países musulmanes donde es casi imposible conocer la situación y las ideas de las mujeres si no se tiene a una mujer musulmana dentro del equipo (Cracknell, 2000). Sin duda, estudiar cómo se comunican hombres y mujeres, teniendo como punto de partida los componentes subrayados en el "análisis de género", es un elemento central para el diseño metodológico y la selección de técnicas de medición. ...
La incorporación de la perspectiva de género a los programas de desarrollo en los últimos años ha provocado el interés por integrar esta perspectiva en la fase de evaluación de cara a fomentar en mayor medida la igualdad de género. Desde comienzos de la década de los 90 del pasado siglo, la igualdad entre hombres y mujeres se han ido incorporando poco a poco como componente clave a la evaluación de programas. Sin embargo, no se ha hecho desde un mismo enfoque. La "evaluación con enfoque Mujeres en el Desarrollo (MED)" y la "evaluación con enfoque Género en el Desarrollo (GED)" han proporcionado dos diferentes ópticas desde las que evaluar la igualdad. El presente artículo recoge las principales características de la "evaluación con perspectiva de género" o "evaluación con enfoque GED". Igualmente, presenta un breve un breve análisis del grado de incorporación de la perspectiva de género en los sistemas de evaluación de la cooperación oficial británica, sueca y española que sirve de base para las recomendaciones finales.
... DAC then issued its "Evaluating Development Assistance" paper in 1972 to respond to problems raised on aid evaluation, and providing guidance on how to use evaluation tools (OECD, ibid.). In late 1970s, the OECD produced two evaluation manuals outlining norms and principles for evaluation of social projects and projects appraisal (Cracknell, 2000), (as cited in Cars,p. 85 to help increasing aid effectiveness (ibid.). ...
... Furthermore, the concept of the adaptive evaluation systems has emerged as a consequence of the continuous change in the working environment of development cooperation (ibid.). Evaluation has also been used as an effective tool for measuring the impact of development programmes, as a feedback mechanism to stakeholders (Cracknell, 2000), and as an indicator to demonstrate how efficiently and effective- ...
... DAC then issued its "Evaluating Development Assistance" paper in 1972 to respond to problems raised on aid evaluation, and providing guidance on how to use evaluation tools (OECD, ibid.). In late 1970s, the OECD produced two evaluation manuals outlining norms and principles for evaluation of social projects and projects appraisal (Cracknell, 2000), (as cited in Cars,p. 85). ...
... Furthermore, the concept of the adaptive evaluation systems 22 has emerged as a consequence of the continuous change in the working environment of development cooperation (ibid.). Evaluation has also been used as an effective tool for measuring the impact of development programmes, as a feedback mechanism to stakeholders (Cracknell, 2000), and as an indicator to demonstrate how efficiently and effectively the resources of development cooperation were being used (as cited in Cars, ibid.). ...
The issue of development effectiveness and the question of whether development aid
‘works’ is still at the centre of the international debate, where the development community
is still struggling to find a definitive answer to this question. Evaluation systems of development
agencies remain strategic actors in this debate. Meanwhile, harmonisation of aid,
and of development evaluation mechanisms and procedures in particular, have been and
still overwhelming the entire development community. Despite commitments made and
action taken, the development landscape still lacks concrete actions on the ground, whereas
significant progress towards aid and evaluation harmonisation is yet to be made.
This study puts emphasis on the importance of aid evaluation as an important tool to promote
aid and development effectiveness. It investigates the practice of project evaluation in
development agencies in a comparative manner, focusing on the World Bank and the GIZ
as two major international development actors. The comparative analysis investigates the
two organizations’ project evaluation systems and practices in terms of a pre-defined set of
criteria. The study provides a reference or a kick-start for both organizations to possibly set
up a common harmonized evaluation practices that can be applied when working together
in development projects. It also reflects on current and future major challenges that face
each of the two organizations and the development evaluation community at large.
The study reveals that project evaluation is still the dominant type of evaluation despite
shifts in the development thinking and practices and the new emerging aid modalities,
where project evaluation remains the foundation for evaluation findings and recommendation
made for other evaluation types. There is an apparent variation among the two organizations,
in terms of the criteria adopted for project evaluation, their evaluation approach,
and the practice of attribution of results. Findings also show considerable differences in
evaluation-related resources between the World Bank and the GIZ, which significantly affect
and direct their project evaluation activities, communication and use of results.
The development evaluation industry is facing current and future severe challenges that
impede achieving development effectiveness and fostering harmonisation, this calls for
urgent actions and remedies by the development community to address these challenges,
and to restructure the development evaluation architecture in a manner that copes with current
and future shifts and demands.
... This process was further developed to Program Cycle Management (PCM) (Speckley, 2004) then Results Based Management (RBM)(Comparison of the European Commission's project cycle management) and other iterations of the Logframe/ Theory of Change chain of input, output, outcome and impact. Notable organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, the European Union (EU), the Asian Development Bank and a whole long list of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) such as Red Cross, World Vision, Save the Children, International Organisation for Migration and a plethora more work in this frame (Anon, 2004;UNDP (2002) Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluating for Results, Cooke-Davies, 2009;Maylor et al., 2006;Cracknell, 2000). ...
... The recent focus on Project Management research and practice development has been centered on strategy, with the explicit aim of Projects being firmly seen as delivery vehicles of outputs which, when combined with other projects, deliver valuable outcomes and benefits (Cracknell, 2000;Crawford et al., 2006). This can be reinforced by establishing a clearer link between Projects and Programs, using tools that are shown to work to that end. ...
The challenge for personnel in disaster situations is that there has been very limited effective Program or Project Management (PPM) methodology, education or training provided to plan and implement Programs of Projects that will deliver sustainable value for stakeholders following a disaster.Based on extensive program management research and practice, this paper addresses a context driven, flexible but robustly practical approach to Program and Project Management methodology and education. Current Program Management training is a one size fits all approach based on Project practices and methodologies which do not integrate effectively with Project Management or cater for the largely unpredictable or high risk situation, such as a disaster.This paper reviews. •A practical process for assessing, planning and delivering best value outcomes for Programs and Projects.•The PSA Project process which can be integrated into any Project methodology through the working Scope within an effective Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) process by engaging key stakeholder values to enable sustainable Program results.. . . © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Association for Project Management and the International Project Management Association.
... The literature shows that policy evaluation has an origin in developed countries specifically in evaluating development projects to know if they are doing the right thing or things right. The results obtained in the process served as lessons for other countries (Cracknell, 2000;SDC, 2000). ...
Public urban lands significantly benefit the people, environment, and economy and demand protection and proper management from people. However, unauthorized encroachment and occupation of public lands by Burundians have posed a significant threat to the sustainability of public lands. Understanding legal and policy responses and their coherence are critical for long-term public urban land management. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the coherency and ambiguity in the existing legal and policy frameworks vis -à- vis the management of public urban lands in Burundi. The such policy-level analysis could help to scrutinize the areas of policy intervention to improve the management of public urban lands. Qualitative research was applied. Data were collected from desk reviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. A Common Analytical Framework was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the different land-related policies. The evaluation is made based on three criteria: the content of each policy, governance of the policy under evaluation, and policy linkage to land management. The findings reveal that public urban land issues are fragmentally found in different policies and consequently are ineffectively managed by various institutions. This paper recommends the need for mainstreaming of public urban land in the land management programmes as well as harmonization of policy frameworks to effectively deal with public urban lands in Burundi.
... The ignorance among the women was striking, and it can be concluded that they had not been sufficiently involved in the design and implementation of the proj ect. By not considering gender issues, a common failure of development proj ects was repeated here (Cracknell 2000;Gardner and Lewis 1996). Because a request from the Geshe counted as an order in Lingshed, almost every house hold paid the first yearly contribution to the community health fund immediately. ...
India has long occupied an important place in Tibetan medicine's history and development. However, Indian Himalayan practitioners of Tibetan medicine, or amchi, have largely remained overlooked at the Tibetan medical periphery, despite playing a central social and medical role in their communities. Power and legitimacy, religion and economic development, biomedical encounters and Indian geopolitics all intersect in the work and identities of contemporary Himalayan amchi. This volume examines the crucial moment of crisis and transformation that occurred in the early 2000s to offer insights into the beginnings of Tibetan medicine's professionalization, industrialization, and official recognition in India and elsewhere. Based on fine-grained ethnographic studies in Ladakh, Zangskar, Sikkim, and the Darjeeling Hills, Healing at the Periphery asks how the dynamics of capitalism, social change, and the encounter with biomedicine affect small communities on the fringes of modern India, and, conversely, what local transformations of Tibetan medicine tell us about contemporary society and health care in the Himalayas and the Tibetan world.
Contributors. Florian Besch, Calum Blaikie, Sienna R. Craig, Barbara Gerke, Isabelle Guérin, Kim Gutschow, Pascale Hancart Petitet, Stephan Kloos, Fernanda Pirie, Laurent Pordié
... The level of education of participants has been identified as a key requirement for the effective application of PM&E to development initiatives (Cracknell 2000). In this study, all respondents at the district level and head of institutions at the community level had attained a minimum of degree-level education in a relevant field. ...
Ghana has pursued decentralisation since 1988, but its implementation continues to face challenges. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is one of the tools that can help local governments to be more effective in the planning and management of development projects. However, the issues involved in implementing PM&E in rural local governments operating within a rapidly changing sociocultural and political environment have not been sufficiently explored. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper draws on project and policy documents and primary data on the application of PM&E in District Assemblies’ Common Fund projects implemented between 2013 and 2017 in Ghana’s Lambussie District. Six key informant interviews were held with district- and regional-level stakeholders, and eight focus group discussions were undertaken at the community level. The research found that inadequate provision for operationalising PM&E at the local level, and lack of accountability and feedback mechanisms, resulted in a tokenistic approach to PM&E. The authors suggest that research and advocacy on mechanisms for holding district authorities accountable is vital to the success of future PM&E initiatives at local government level.
... Today, there are many versions and variations in terminology, but LFA is typically presented as a matrix that breaks down a project into its component parts in order to facilitate its management [2]. The fundamental structure and purpose of the tool has remained unchanged since its conception [4]. ...
International Development (ID), which is often questioned for its lack of effectiveness, is a specific sector in the application of Project Management (PM) in relation to the use of projects that are undertaken to generate changes. In this case, ID seeks to have an impact on living standards of the most vulnerable groups of the population. This study reveals, by an extensive review of the most pertinent literature, the particularities and complexities of ID projects. It initiates the debate on the convenience of adapting existing tools in PM that are broadly used in, and familiar to, the industrial sector (PMI, Prince or any other) to Cooperation, or the need to improve those tools that are already in place, mainly the Logical Framework Approach (LFA), or even to design new alternatives. Due to the respect owed to a tool that has been used for nearly five decades, this research studies the development and evolution of LFA from its origins to the latest presentations, including its strengths and limitations. The proposals to improve LFA, as a result of these investigations, are re-examined in cooperation with professionals, whose valuable opinions on the matter facilitate an increase in efficiency level in ID.
... Being aware of the numerous, diverse pressures facing evaluators, the evaluation community is now trying to promote an "evaluative culture" to push organisations to "engage in selfreflection and self-examination" (Mayne, 2010). Hence, unlike past evaluation practitioners who worked without reflecting on their preconceived ideas and mostly adopted the values of the donor agency (Cracknell, 2000), current evaluators are now expected to adopt and uphold the ethical and quality standards of the profession. ...
In a world of unprecedented uncertainty and complexity, and post-truth politics, the ethical challenges for the independent evaluator are greater than ever. At a time when the opinions of independent experts are increasingly considered to be part of an out-of-touch elite, what are the ethical dilemmas and challenges for independent evaluation consultants working in a highly competitive evaluation marketplace? How can professional practice be protected from the politicization of the evaluation process in an increasingly polarized policy space (Schwandt, 2018)? If evaluations of public policies are inevitably intertwined with political interests (Englert et al., 1977; Vestman & Conner, 2006), and commercial interests (Nielsen et al., 2018), independent evaluators are caught in complex power dynamics.
By following a hermeneutic phenomenology approach, this study investigates the lived experience of 9 independent evaluation consultants (5 women and 4 men) when dealing with ethical dilemmas as well as rendering ethically sensitive judgments in the framework of external international development evaluations commissioned by a variety of multilateral organizations and bilateral donors. In contrast to most other studies on evaluation ethics that examine what evaluators should do, this phenomenological study explores evaluators at the core of their being through their actual personal experiences in i) making ethical decisions dealing with good and bad in their daily work, ii) dealing with their clients and the power dynamics and ethical challenges stemming from this relationship; and iii) drawing upon the evaluation professional community as a support system to reinforce their ethical decision-making and ethical practices.
This study argues that independent evaluators’ ethical decision-making is never solely the result of one’s cognition, reasoning or intuition but relies on the decision-maker’s subjective rationality and is often bounded by both information and power asymmetries. The thematic analysis of evaluators’ lived experience yielded the five essential themes: knowing one’s roots, navigating through the ethical fog, relying on a decision support system, negotiating one’s independence and influence, and turning to other stakeholders.
With a view to deepening the understanding of the evaluation process and its relational dynamics within the evaluation community, this study highlights the need for the strengthening of moral thinking and ethical practice among all involved actors, in order to foster action for a more reflective practice in the evaluation consulting field.
... L'objectif était, grâce à la permutation des rôles réalisée lors des ateliers 2 et 3, de faire apparaître les convergences de points de vue sur la situation actuelle et son évolution, et d'identifier ainsi des solutions possibles. Pour cela, et après validation de l'objet du débat par les participants, un arbre à problème (Cracknell, 2000 ;Jackson, 2001) a été élaboré sur le dysfonctionnement du réseau collectif d'irrigation (figure 5). Sur la base des causes identifiées, un travail de planification stratégique a ensuite été conduit, pour identifier les solutions potentielles, les moyens à mettre en oeuvre, et les responsabilités de chaque acteur dans ce dysfonctionnement. ...
Cette étude présente une démarche participative utilisée pour aider les acteurs de la profession agricole de la plaine de la Mitidja en Algérie à réfléchir sur le futur de leur agriculture, et en particulier sur l'utilisation de l'eau et du foncier. Plusieurs ateliers participatifs ont réuni des agriculteurs et des représentants d'institutions agricoles locales. S'inscrivant dans une optique d'apprentissage social, cette démarche que nous proposons d'appeler « scénariologie participative » a permis d'identifier les contraintes actuelles au développement agricole de la région et de construire des scénarios d'évolution permettant une visualisation commune de l'avenir. Ce travail révèle la nécessité, pour les agriculteurs travaillant des terres publiques, de s'organiser de manière dynamique autour de l'eau et du foncier à travers des arrangements informels qui aménagent les règles officielles. L'utilisation de la « scénariologie participative » permet également de lancer des débats constructifs entre les différents acteurs du monde agricole, échange qui semble primordial pour amorcer une cogestion de l'agriculture dans la zone étudiée.
... Also, a trade-off between the two functions is assumed. If the role of evaluation as a learning tool is to be prioritized, it is argued, then its accountability function needs to be given less weight (Armytage, 2011;Cracknell, 2000;Guijt, 2010;Kogen, 2018;Lennie and Tacchi, 2014). An alternative view sees the two evaluation functions as complementary (Feinstein, 2012;Lehtonen, 2005;Picciotto, 2018;Regeer et al., 2016). ...
Although the relation between accountability and learning is a key issue in the field of evaluation, the existing conceptualizations include significant gaps and shortcoming. This article seeks to bridge some of the identified gaps, overcoming the dichotomy between learning and accountability and the overemphasis on accountability, and offering a more nuanced account of various forms of positive and negative learning. We propose a theory-informed reconceptualization of both accountability and learning in order to develop an interpretative framework that recognizes their plurality and brings them together through evaluation. To make visible the analytical potential of our reconceptualization, we present the Italian higher education evaluation system as a source of illustrative examples.
Our analysis confirms that accountability and learning are inextricably interconnected and that multiple forms of learning can be envisaged by taking into account the mutual relationship among organizational arrangements, evaluative practices and cultural codes. We argue that such kind of analysis allows to remove the taken-for-granted aspects of evaluation practices, challenging the often-implicit assumptions about their virtues as well as their weaknesses in order to see what evaluation actually does in a particular situation.
... M&E systems are the most commonly used management information system in development aid, and it has been used in this field since the 1970s (Cracknell, 2000). Monitoring is a process of using systematic data collection on specified indicators to provide management and the main stakeholders of an ongoing development intervention with indications of the extent of progress and achievement of objectives and progress in the use of allocated funds (OECD/DAC, 2002). ...
In light of the debate on the consequences of competitive contracting out of traditionally public services, this research compares two mechanisms used to allocate funds in development cooperation—direct awarding and competitive contracting out—aiming to identify their potential advantages and disadvantages. The agency theory is applied within the framework of rational-choice institutionalism to study the institutional arrangements that surround two different money allocation mechanisms, identify the incentives they create for the behavior of individual actors in the field, and examine how these then transfer into measurable differences in managerial quality of development aid projects. In this work, project management quality is seen as an important determinant of the overall project success. For data-gathering purposes, the German development agency, the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), is used due to its unique way of work. Whereas the majority of projects receive funds via direct-award mechanism, there is a commercial department, GIZ International Services (GIZ IS) that has to compete for project funds. The data concerning project management practices on the GIZ and GIZ IS projects was gathered via a web-based, self-administered survey of project team leaders. Principal component analysis was applied to reduce the dimensionality of the independent variable to total of five components of project management. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis identified the differences between the separate components on these two project types. Enriched by qualitative data gathered via interviews, this thesis offers insights into everyday managerial practices in development cooperation and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the two allocation mechanisms. The thesis first reiterates the responsibility of donors and implementers for overall aid effectiveness. It shows that the mechanism of competitive contracting out leads to better oversight and control of implementers, fosters deeper cooperation between the implementers and beneficiaries, and has a potential to strengthen ownership of recipient countries. On the other hand, it shows that the evaluation quality does not tremendously benefit from the competitive allocation mechanism and that the quality of the component knowledge management and learning is better when direct-award mechanisms are used. This raises questions about the lacking possibilities of actors in the field to learn about past mistakes and incorporate the finings into the future interventions, which is one of the fundamental issues of aid effectiveness. Finally, the findings show immense deficiencies in regard to oversight and control of individual projects in German development cooperation.
... This literature focuses mainly on analyzing the ACP-EU relations from a legal and policy perspective, sometimes taking a critical stance like for example qualifying the partnership agreements as neo-colonialism (Lister 1988). In addition, a significant amount of work consists of the EU's contracted evaluation studies carried out to 17 Riddelll (2007), Dichter (2005), Radelet (2004), Cracknell (2000), Cassen and associates (1994). 18 Shirley (2008Shirley ( , 2005, Lancaster (2007), Brainard (2007), ADB (2006), Browne (2006), Gupta, Pattillo, and Wagh (2006), Clemens and Moss (2005), Klein and Harford (2005), King and McGrath (2004), Rogerson, Hewitt, and Waldenber (2004), Pritchett and Woolcock (2004), Roodman (2004), Akram (2003), Kayizzi-Mugerwa (2003), Owusu (2003), Sampson (2003), Vasquez (2003), Thérien and Lloyd (2000), CBO (1997), Katada (1997), Rao (1997), Svenson (1997), Black and Thérien (1996), Feinber and Avakov (1991), Pearson et al (1969). ...
... Adapted from Cracknell (2000). ...
Informed by trends and citing predictions about the future of evaluation, this précis lays out requirements, considerations, and steps for planning and delivering change that would support the recalibration of independent evaluation so it might better serve learning.
... High quality evaluations may incorporate this kind of learning, but a lack of emphasis on this kind of learning means that many evaluations do not. It is in part for this reason that many evaluation experts describe "accountability-based" and "learning-based" evaluations as at odds with each other (Armytage, 2011;Cracknell, 2000;Lennie and Tacchi, 2014), despite the insistence by organizations like USAID that both concepts are fundamental and can be "mutually reinforcing" (2016: 8). Lennie and Tacchi (2015: 27) define learning-based approaches as those that "understand social change as emergent, unpredictable, unknowable in advance." ...
In recent decades, development donors in the West have touted a shift to rigorous evaluations and evidence-based policymaking in order to address global skepticism regarding the effectiveness of aid. In the accompanying rhetoric, “accountability” and “learning” have been held up as twin pillars that will ensure a more effective aid-making system. This contribution questions the ability of these concepts to improve aid in their current working forms. The contribution offers a revised conceptualization of learning in order to improve funding and funding policy. The revised definition supports two particular areas in which “learning” is sorely needed but which are eschewed in most current institutionalized evaluation rhetoric: developing theory undergirding social change (such as theories relating to gender-based violence) and evaluating project design and implementation processes (such as participatory designs).
... Thereafter, the LF was adopted by many other governmental agencies around the world (Landoni and Corti 2011). Today, there are many versions and variations in the terminology used, but the Logical Framework maintains its typical structure of a matrix that breaks a project down into its component parts in order to facilitate management (Cracknell 2000). One of the best-known versions of the tool is probably the one adopted by the European Commission. ...
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a fundamental role in International Development but their projects often lack efficiency and effectiveness. A key aspect is the proper use of project management tools and methodologies. The Logical Framework (LF) has been suggested as a key tool in this sector. However, the extent and impact of its use by NGOs is still not known. Based on almost 500 questionnaires collected from project managers working on International Development (ID) projects in NGOs around the world, we show that the LF is broadly adopted, especially for large projects and ‘soft’ projects. Moreover, we demonstrate that when used in the various phases of a project’s life-cycle, the LF contributes significantly to the achievement of superior project impact.
... Following the prevailing approach in the community logic, the path wants to be structured according to the principles of the Project Cycle Management (PCM) [14], the cyclical project management, which is inevitably correlated to the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) [15]. The peculiarity of these instruments is the implementation of an integrated approach among the different project phases, in the systematic definition of the relations of cause and effect which are transformed into means and ends, where the strategy is the beneficiaries, fully incorporated in the action planning. ...
The research aims to introduce the regional strategy of co-design applied for the integrated governance on the political and public sphere. The battle to save traditional values today starts from knowledge and participation. The methodology presented intends to promote some models for sustainable and democratic development of social contract connected to environmental citizenship and co-design approach. In this strategy of Public and Private Partnership (PPP), the academic research is fundamental for reaching the standardization of the approaches to investigation and intervention and the Atlas of Objectives produced represents a contemporary tool to bring out relationships and define “routes” in compliance with the European guidelines, which are applied in some regional strategies. This guideline can be applied in the Landscape Contract, in particular the one of Lake Trasimeno, an agreement between citizens and administrations aimed at territorial governance and cohesion policy. It starts from a well-structured cognitive framework and it is finalized to the active government of the territory. The main goal is the involvement of both citizens and economic entities in joining a strategy, which aims to increase the sense of belonging. In that regards, it promotes the necessary social and cultural changes and it makes more efficient the productivity in terms of sustainable development of a homogeneous territorial area.
... A mikroszintű elemzések megközelítésmódja egészen más. A segélyprojektek és programok értékelésének komoly módszertana alakult ki (OECD DAC 1986Stokke 1991Stokke , 1992Cracknell 2000), aminek részletes vizsgálata túlmutat kötetünk keretein. Bár megközelítésük középpontjában a donorállamok adminisztrációjának részéről történő elemzés, illetve értékelés áll, fogalmi megalapozottságuknál fogva megbízható alapot nyújtanak a független szemszögből való értelmezéshez is. 2 A segélyprojektek értékelésére vonatkozó irányelveik, következtetéseik röviden az alábbiakban foglalhatók össze: ...
A fejlett államok évente több tíz milliárd dollárral támogatják a függetlenségüket történelmi összehasonlításban nem oly régen elnyert fejlődő államokat azzal a deklarált céllal, hogy megkönnyítsék számukra a világgazdaságba való bekapcsolódást, illetve hozzájáruljanak a szegénység problémájának leküzdéséhez. A nemzetközi segélyezésben kifejeződő törekvések ellenére a különbségek nőnek: napjainkban vásárlóerő-paritáson számolva az átlagos egy főre jutó bruttó hazai jövedelem a fejlett államokban tizenöt-hússzorosa az Afrikában elérhetőnek. E különbség több, mint kétszerese annak, amelyet 1950-ben mértek. A nemzetközi segélyezési rezsim egésze azonban van annyira összetett és ellentmondásos, hogy ne lehessen egyértelmű értékítéletet alkotni, sem annak hasznosságáról, sem kívánatos mivoltáról.
Az olvasó által kézben tartott kötet célja a nemzetközi fejlesztési együttműködési rezsim elveinek, normáinak, működésének, főbb szereplőinek és hatékonyságának bemutatása. Elsősorban a téma iránt érdeklődő egyetemi hallgatóknak kívánunk olyan szakmai alapot biztosítani, amelynek segítségével a későbbiekben a nemzetközi segélyezéssel kapcsolatban önálló gondolatokat fogalmazhatnak meg. Bátran ajánljunk a kötetet azoknak is, akik csupán többet szeretnének tudni a nemzetközi kapcsolatok ezen alterületének sajátosságairól, a hivatalos segélyezés mozgatórugóiról, eredményességéről, vagy esetleg e területen dolgoznak és érdeklődnek a téma elméleti háttere után.
... L'objectif était, grâce à la permutation des rôles réalisée lors des ateliers 2 et 3, de faire apparaître les convergences de points de vue sur la situation actuelle et son évolution, et d'identifier ainsi des solutions possibles. Pour cela, et après validation de l'objet du débat par les participants, un arbre à problème (Cracknell, 2000 ;Jackson, 2001) a été élaboré sur le dysfonctionnement du réseau collectif d'irrigation (figure 5). Sur la base des causes identifiées, un travail de planification stratégique a ensuite été conduit, pour identifier les solutions potentielles, les moyens à mettre en oeuvre, et les responsabilités de chaque acteur dans ce dysfonctionnement. ...
Cette étude présente une démarche participative utilisée pour aider les acteurs de la profession agricole de la plaine de la Mitidja en Algérie à réfléchir sur le futur de leur agriculture, et en particulier sur l’utilisation de l’eau et du foncier. Plusieurs ateliers participatifs ont réuni des agriculteurs et des représentants d’institutions agricoles locales. S’inscrivant dans une optique d’apprentissage social, cette démarche que nous proposons d’appeler « scénariologie participative » a permis d’identifier les contraintes actuelles au développement agricole de la région et de construire des scénarios d’évolution permettant une visualisation commune de l’avenir. Ce travail révèle la nécessité, pour les agriculteurs travaillant des terres publiques, de s’organiser de manière dynamique autour de l’eau et du foncier à travers des arrangements informels qui aménagent les règles officielles. L’utilisation de la « scénariologie participative » permet également de lancer des débats constructifs entre les différents acteurs du monde agricole, échange qui semble primordial pour amorcer une cogestion de l’agriculture dans la zone étudiée.
... In addition, these are likely to be some general indicators (eg. change in household income, changes in level of expenditure, level of food consumption, quality of hosing, access to electricity, access to potable water) reflecting improvements in the overall living standards of rural people [9]. In Punjab, many studies were conducted to evaluate the MGNREGA progarmme such as implementation of the program. ...
While much attention has been paid to the ways in which the private sector is now embedded within the field of development, one group of actors — for‐profit development consultancies and contractors, or service providers — has received relatively little attention. This article analyses the growing role of for‐profit consultancies and contractors in British aid delivery, which has been driven by two key trends: first, the outsourcing of managerial, audit and knowledge‐management functions as part of efforts to bring private sector approaches and skills into public spending on aid; and second, the reconfiguration of aid spending towards markets and the private sector, and away from locally embedded, state‐focused aid programming. The authors argue that both trends were launched under New Labour in the early 2000s, and super‐charged under successive Conservative governments. The resulting entanglement means that the policies and practices of the UK government's aid agencies, and the interests and forms of for‐profit service providers, are increasingly mutually constitutive. Amongst other implications, this shift acts to displace traditional forms of contestation and accountability of aid delivery.
This chapter introduces the significance of this volume by exploring new CSOs’ leaders’ engagement, practices, and influences. This introduces political, social, and economic dynamics, challenges, and structures that influence CSOs’ leadership at the local, national, and global levels. It includes the background, framework, scope and questions of study, and methods. It introduces explorations of CSOs’ new leaderships’ engagement, practices, and influences under which they work, as well as shedding light on their challenges in contemporary societies. It focuses on the theme of CSOs’ leadership, shifts, changes, and developmental challenges and opportunities by examining specific case studies, thereby aiming at improving our understanding of the challenges facing new leadership structures of CSOs in various societies.
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book significantly contributes to theoretical discussions of the power of Civil Society Organisations' (CSOs) leaders who have challenged the complexities imposed by Covid-19 and the serious shifts made to CSOs' scope of work owing to health conditions and circumstances. It presents a new approach to arguments and discussions about the concepts and practices of CSOs' leadership in the field of development and engagement by analysing various cases from different cultures and locations. The book provides a firm theoretical framework of CSOs' leadership and development issues that are relevant not only for an academic audience but also for international agencies, policymakers, and practitioners active in Brazil, India, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and Palestine. By assessing contexts and engaging policymakers with rigorous empirical research in a systematic way, CSOs' leaders' engagement can work to overcome both the internal and external challenges they face.
This chapter introduces the theoretical framework, exploring technical constraints, shifts, Covid-19, and policies and their impact on CSOs’ leaders’ efficiency and effectiveness in grassroots engagement, change, and community development, and how this can be understood. This introductory chapter speaks clearly about these definitions and concepts in reference to the existing literature. How do local cultures and their social context and background affect CSOs’ leadership and their engagement in local politics? To what extent have CSOs’ leaders contributed to change and development processes despite shifts and the pandemic? This chapter also discusses the existing literature to explore and compare the definitions of CSOs’ local leadership structures in different case studies and countries.
In response to the global challenge of low-income housing provision, research on understanding the housing provision mechanisms has gained a reputation among emerging scholars and practitioners in architecture, urban development, housing, and public policy. An effective provision system entails the institutions and stakeholders comprehending their interrelations within the housing market context, lacking conceptual clarity. Challenging roles of institutions and stakeholders within the domain of housing provision necessitates the groundwork to study the contextual positions and relations of stakeholders as an analogous component and the analysis of institutional frameworks. The paper provides the theoretical foundations within the metaphorical bases for integrating the respective analytical approaches, i.e., institutional analysis (IA) and stakeholder analysis (SA), drawing on critical theoretical constructs. By analytical comparison of empirical evidence of IA and SA in housing research against the prompting keywords, critical reflections offer the conceptual foundation of new research agenda through IA-SA integrated approach. The study thereby advances the theoretical understanding between the regulatory level (institutions) and engagement level (stakeholders). It proposes a multi-level analysis process that complements the IA-SA integration for examining the provision systems in the context of low-income housing.
With a rich discussion of the role of monitoring and evaluation (M&E), the differences between monitoring and evaluation, and the various types of evaluations that can be undertaken, this chapter provides a rich assessment of the tools that evaluators can use to assess advancements in the SDGs, lessons learned, accountability, and the power of the interconnected nature of the SDGs. It also provides a critical assessment of the challenges that the evaluation domain faces.
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an essential part of ensuring accountability, learning and enhanced approaches to policy and practice. However, as this chapter demonstrates, the culture of M&E is severely limited or absent in most countries for budgetary, cultural, and structural reasons and is often influenced by political and personal ambitions of those funding the evaluations and those undertaking them. These challenges, along with others discussed in this chapter, have contributed to the weakening of the field of evaluation and to the rise in demands for its professionalization through certifications and quality controls.
Informed by trends and citing predictions about the future of evaluation, this précis lays out requirements, considerations, and steps for planning and delivering change that would support the recalibration of independent evaluation so it might better serve learning.
La gestion intégrée de l'eau au sein d'un territoire doit tenir compte de la demande des usagers. En agriculture irriguée, la demande en eau est un construit social déterminé à la fois par les besoins des cultures, par l'offre mais aussi par les contraintes de l'agriculteur. En l'absence d'institutions fortes qui permettent de faire reconnaître ces contraintes, il est difficile d'établir des règles de gestion profitables à tous. Sur le territoire irrigué de la Mitidja-ouest en Algérie, notre travail visait à intégrer les points de vue des agriculteurs dans la construction de la demande en eau agricole et son évolution. Une démarche méthodologique innovante a été développée en s'appuyant sur une combinaison d'approches : bilan hydrique, analyse technico-économique des exploitations agricoles et approche participative impliquant différents acteurs : agriculteurs et institutionnels. L'agriculture irriguée de la Mitidja-ouest est caractérisée par des structures d'exploitation à caractère collectif (les EAC) et un recours massif à la nappe. Une grande diversité des systèmes de cultures et de pratiques a pu être observée dans le cadre d'enquêtes individuelles. Ces enquêtes ont notamment révélé le poids des locataires dans une nouvelle dynamique agricole moderne. Malgré cette diversité, la mise en place de sessions participatives a mis en évidence une forte convergence de points de vue sur les contraintes de foncier et d'eau d'irrigation qui pèsent sur les agriculteurs, qui ont également exprimé leur vision du futur. Ces contraintes et cette vision ont été confrontées à celles des acteurs institutionnels de ce territoire. La méthode que nous avons bâtie, permet à la fois de valider de façon collective -avec les acteurs-, les résultats issus des enquêtes individuelles, et d'avoir une vision partagée sur des tendances d'évolution telle qu'une augmentation des superficies irriguées. Plusieurs scénarios ont été testés sur la base de ces tendances. Leur validation requiert néanmoins des travaux complémentaires afin de mieux maîtriser la diversité et l'interface de communication des approches mobilisées. Ce travail s'inscrit dans une optique de recherche-action sur ce territoire, visant à ouvrir des voies de communication entre ses acteurs, et de réflexion sur le long terme.
Tak banyak Ornop yang berani ambil jarak dan memilih berjerih payah memikirkan kemandirian lembaga semacam itu. Kiprah para Ornop untuk menginisiasi kemandirian terkategorikan dalam Ornop yang tak banyak di Indonesia. Kesadaran diri untuk tetap bertahan dan memperjuangkan misi adiluhung Ornop untuk berkontribusi membangun pranata sosial masyarakat sipil yang beradab tentu menjadi pilihan sulit jika diperadakan pada terbatasnya sumber daya dari luar negeri. Tatakala realitas memapar bahwa keberlanjutan kelembagaan donor pun menciut, kisut(shrinking), oleh hempasan gebalau finansial dunia semacam itu, lantas apa bedanya antara lembaga donor internasional dan Ornop di Indonesia? Tidakkah dalam konteks ini, jejaring Ornop di Indonesia justru mendapati momentum untuk mencari cara dan strategi sendiri untuk menginisiasi keberlanjutan idealisme, spirit,
dan praksisnya ke depan untuk ke-Indonesia-an?
Tentu saja jawaban pun tak mudah, bahkan rumpil. Hanya saja kita dapat kembali menilik nukilan Goenawan Mohamad bahwa: "Yang memberi harapan ialah bahwayang tenggelam tak pernah hilang total.Ia akan selalu kembali." Kalimat itu adalah undangan untuk berfikir lateral. Dengannya, makna dan pembelajaran yang kita dapat akan berbeda.Terselip denyut masgul itu pasti, namun menarik pembelajaran berharga dari "segenap proses apa(pun) jadinya" dengan"segenap optimalitas kekiprahannya" adalah kemungkinan lain yang pasti juga dapat dipilih. Indikator keberhargaan tak melulu kuantitas. Penggalan yang berkualitas pun dapat berharga dan bernilai. Bagaimanapun juga nilai keberhargaan senantiasa mengada dalam kapasitas refleksi "peristaltik", bukan yang statis. Daya meremas dan menyerap dari alat pencerna refleksi itulah yang dibutuhkan untuk mendapati kebermaknaan sebuah nilai. Setidaknya dalam program pengembangan kapasitas Ornop mitra KIA/ ICCO diJawa-Tengah dan Yogyakarta yang telah berproses dalam kepenuhannya.
This article shares lessons from the field with program evaluations in the English-Speaking Commonwealth Caribbean (ESCC) region. The research highlighted that the challenges faced by evaluators working in the ESCC are quite similar to those experienced by evaluators elsewhere. However, the findings note the impact of the region’s colonial past and the developing–developed nexus on the ESCC people’s sense of pride and their desire to demonstrate the level of their expertise and its equivalence to the expertise associated with people in North America and Europe. These factors seem to contribute to an important undertone for evaluations in the region and for the challenges that evaluators face, including the limited culture of evaluation as well as the availability and quality of data.
Like many of its South East Asian neighbours, the Philippines is characterised by individual and collective multilingualism, being home to over 180 individual languages (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013, p. 25). Unlike its neighbours, however, the Philippines is the first nation in the region to legislate and implement Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) nationally. As such, the Philippines represents a valuable example for other countries as they attempt to develop language-in-education policy and put it into practice.
Employing grounded theory case study methodology, this dissertation examines Filipino MTB MLE policies and their implementation in Mindanao, one of the most remote and linguistically diverse regions of the country. Through policy analysis and semi-structured interviews with key informants, this study presents findings for three key research questions which evolved through the study.
Within the principal resources useful for the next landscape models, people who live in their places represent the beginning and the final point of all the new possible regenerations paths: landscape is perceived by people, it is for people, and it is from people. The policymaker, whether intentionally or not, has a principal role in landscape construction. Reactivating the relationship that binds the community to its landscape is crucial to understand its meanings and to take action on it, and the representational tools can be useful in this regard to present, describe, and communicate the landscape, to involve citizens, and to support their participation. In this context, the research aims to introduce the Umbrian regional strategy of co-design applied for the integrated governance in the political and public sphere. The methodology presented intends to promote some models for the sustainable and democratic development of a social contract connected with environmental citizenship and the co-design approach. In this strategy of public and private partnership (PPP), academic research is fundamental to reach the standardization of the approaches for investigation and intervention, and the Atlas of Objectives produced represents a contemporary tool to bring out relationships and to define “routes” in compliance with the European guidelines, which are applied in some regional strategies. This guideline can be applied in the Landscape Contract, in particular, that of Lake Trasimeno, an agreement between citizens and the administration for territorial governance and cohesion policy. It starts from a well-structured cognitive framework and is finalized to the active government of the territory. The main goal is the involvement of both citizens and economic entities in joining in a strategy that aims to increase the sense of belonging. In that regard, it promotes the necessary social and cultural changes and makes more efficient the productivity in terms of sustainable development of a homogeneous territorial area. Particular case studies and strategies are detailed to explain the potential impact for landscape planning of the instruments developed. The approach in the topic of representation is central to synthesize the knowledge and to reinforce its value, sharing with the citizens and involving them.
This paper examines Patton’s (2008) model of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) in international development, and considers its efficacy in the evaluation of Australia’s Australian Aid programme. A growth in fiscal constraint within governments of many Western countries has placed greater emphasis on accountability and policy results (Rossi et al 2004, p. 8). This has been especially so for foreign aid agencies, with governments facing pressure to enhance the scrutiny of their programmes (Commonwealth of Australia 2011; Syal & Jones 2015). This trend is evident in the recently restructured Australian Aid programme (Bruere & Hill 2016), which incorporates a shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific region. The utility of programme evaluation has thus assumed heightened significance for policy makers, implementing agencies, aid beneficiaries, taxpayers and evaluation practitioners. This paper reviews barriers to implementing the UFE model within Australian Aid and other aid agencies, for example costs and taxpayer accountability, and proposes an adapted UFE model for ‘foreign aid’ programme evaluation (FAUFE). By incorporating elements of cost-benefit analyses and performance measures, our FAUFE model reconciles many of the obstacles to effective evaluation by creating an environment conducive to policy and organizational learning, while allowing for the practical and fiscal requirements of aid agencies.
At the request of shareholders, evaluation studies focus on accountability (and hence provide for command, control, and finger-pointing); they do not serve as an important foundation of learning organizations.
Unlike communication for development and social change approaches, “participation” is not a native concept in media assistance and is therefore not a dominant approach in the evaluation of media assistance programs. This chapter considers the benefits, barriers, and caveats when advocating for more participatory approaches to evaluation in media assistance, taking into account the ways in which participatory approaches are already used. Participatory evaluation should not be about labor shifting; it is more valuable when it is about the inclusion of key stakeholders in the framing of the evaluation’s focus, and in deciding on actions to take in response to emerging evidence.
The concluding chapter revisits the principles underlying the “post-media-missionary” approach to media development and its evaluation, and considers the implications for policy and practice. While challenges in terms of demonstrating the value and contribution of media assistance to media and political systems remain, another pressing challenge for the future is the need to learn from failure. The new “sustainable development goals” offer some opportunities for media assistance to grow, especially with the new goals relating to access to information, and to the accountability of institutions, where communication can be positioned as key to citizen voice and government responsiveness. The focus on governance and voice in the SDGs, coupled with a new agenda for innovation in development, give reasons for being optimistic about a future in which there is less fear and more openness to learning and experimentation.
Articulating evaluation questions is a deceptively challenging aspect of designing evaluation plans in media development. This chapter examines the creation of the “menu of common questions” tool from the IDEAS Guide, with a focus on dialogue and two-way communication aspects of governance and accountability programs. The chapter then discusses how advances in complexity thinking and evaluation can be applied to questions of impact and causal analysis in media assistance. While there is a growing body of evaluations using randomized control trials and quasi-experimental designs in media development, alternative options for systematic causal and contribution analysis are under-used options. While there is great potential for improving impact evaluation practices using these techniques, it is important not to lose sight of the importance of learning through evaluation, which is ultimately the way in which programs benefit from evaluation and become more effective.
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