New Documents
Challenges
in Evaluating Development Effectiveness By Howard White - 2005 ISBN 1 85864 854 8 28
pages £12.95 IDS Working Papers - 242 Evaluation quality is a
function of methodological and data inputs. This paper argues that
there has been inadequate investment in methodology, often resulting in
low quality evaluation outputs. With an increased focus on results,
evaluation needs to deliver credible information on the role of
development-supported interventions in improving the lives of poor
people, so attention to sound methodology matters. This paper explores
three areas in which evaluation can be improved. First, reporting
agency-wide performance through monitoring systems that satisfy the
Triple-A criteria of aggregation, attribution and alignment; which
includes procedures for the systematic summary of qualitative data.
Second, more attention need to be paid to measuring impact, both
through the use of randomisation where possible and appropriate, or
through quasi-experimental methods. However, analysis of impact needs
to be firmly embedded in a theory-based approach which maps the causal
chain from inputs to impacts. Finally, analysis of sustainability needs
to move beyond its current crude and cursory treatment to embrace the
tools readily available to the discipline. (Posted 25/06/05)
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