Evaluability Assessments: Reflections on a review of the literature

Abstract

In 2012 the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) funded a review of the literature on Evaluability Assessments, which was undertaken by Rick Davies. Although the review focused on practical guidance Evaluability Assessments are not unproblematic. Evaluability Assessments involve an additional layer of cost and procedure. The diversity of evaluation approaches is a challenge to any categorical judgement about evaluability. The reach of an evaluability assessment can become over-extended. Evaluability questions asked of individual projects may not be so easily applied to larger portfolios of projects. The purpose of this article is to give more attention to the problematic aspects of Evaluability Assessments. In doing so it does not seek to revise the broad conclusions of the Working Paper, which unambiguously encouraged the wider use of Evaluability Assessments.