Challenging times for evaluation of international development assistance

Abstract

The spread of results-based management in developed countries, combined with increasing taxpayers’ concern for non-performing projects, has increased the relevance of evaluation in development assistance. There are challenges, however, stemming from the ‘more than usual’ complexities of evaluation circumstances (e.g. asymmetry of interest in evaluation between an aid donor and a recipient) as well as the changing development context, such as increasingly strategic orientation of donor policies, growing weight of global development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals, and spread of the practice of multi-donor assistance. The paper reviews the theoretical and practical issues involved in coping with these challenges. It argues that the increasing emphasis placed on capacity development in development policy and programs, when coupled with empowerment approaches in evaluation, may give rise to a new and promising role for evaluation in development and development cooperation.