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Evaluation for equitable development results

– 27 March 2012Posted in: Evaluation, MDGs, Methods, OECD, Poverty

I received this message from four Directors of UN Evaluation Offices:

The focus on equity in human development is gathering momentum at the international level. Its premise is increasingly supported by United Nations reports and strategies, as well as by independent analysis. More and more national policies and international alliances are focusing on achieving equitable development results. The emerging equity agenda is surely the right way to go. But it poses important questions for everyone involved in development evaluation. Are current evaluation approaches and methods relevant and useful in the assessment of equity-focused interventions? Are we able to assess whether these interventions are achieving real and sustainable impact in reducing inequity? Under what conditions can equitable results be quickly and efficiently achieved? What needs to be done to strengthen the capacity of Governments, organizations and communities to evaluate the effect of interventions intended to achieve equitable outcomes for marginalized populations?

With the aim of prompting thinking to address such questions, UNICEF, UNDP, UNWomen and ILO Evaluation Offices partnered with Mexico’s Coneval, IDRC (the International Development Research Institute), IDEAS (International Development Evaluation Association) and IOCE (International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation) to publish the book enclosed with this letter. This publication offers a number of strong contributions from senior officers in institutions dealing with evaluation, and from senior Government representatives responsible for national monitoring and evaluation systems.

We encourage you to share this publication within the United Nations system, as well as with your partners. We believe it will be a valuable resource for discussions on evaluation for equitable evaluation results, and to inform participants at relevant national and international meetings and conferences. Please do not hesitate to contact the book’s editor, Marco Segone, Evaluation Office, UNICEF, at msegone@unicef.org for any further information and/or additional copies. Soft copies are available, free of charge, at www.mymande.org, as well as a series of webinars with the authors of the book.

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Making Partnership Work | Norwegian People’s Aid

– 20 March 2012Posted in: Cooperation, Development, Evaluation

Making Partnership Work | Norwegian People’s Aid

Making Partnership Work | Norwegian People’s Aid
Vision and Implementation of a Development Programme
Published  2011 by Norwegian People’s Aid

Key findings:
The review found that the NPA has made efforts in addressing the challenges, identified in the previous organisational performance review from Norad. Head office strategy documents and policy guidelines provide sufficient guidance for the NPA’s development programme. Further revision should be confined to editing and shortening. The documents are generally well known in the organisation. Staff interviewed provided broad support for the main direction of the organisation. Progress is also noted in the NPA’s ability to plan and report on results.
The main challenge ahead for the NPA lies in strengthening operationalization and contextualisation through the development of country strategy documents, which can guide the NPA’s work. Furthermore, the review also notes that the NPA programme is still big and may have too many partners in some countries.
The review notes that the NPA has successfully managed the transition from an implementing and operational agency to an organisation working primarily with partners in programme countries. However, a number of issues need clarification. These include the role of regional programmes; the role of trade unions in the development programme; and the poor relations with the mine action programme.

Partnership
The review team found that there are great variations in the ways in which the NPA supports and implements its partnership policy. In some countries, the NPA contribution may be mainly financial and administrative; in others programme advice and dialogue on substantive issues may be more important. Generally, however, there seems to be good adaptation to local conditions and commitment to working with partners. However, the present review also notes that the NPA struggles to move beyond donor-recipient relations in its partnership.

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Evaluation Insights on Food Security – DAC EvalNet

– 22 February 2012Posted in: Rural Economies

With food security rising to the top of development agendas, the DAC EVALNET decided to take stock of evaluation evidence. A systematic review, commissioned by IOB Netherlands, examines evidence on the impact of interventions aimed at improving food security through agriculture production, value chain development, market reform and land tenure. The findings are summarised in the Network’s latest Evaluation Insights: 49567434.pdf (application/pdf Object).

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Planet of great opportunities, by Jan Pronk

– 15 March 2011Posted in: Development

This article is based on the Ryszard Kapuscinski Lecture given by Jan Pronk at the London School of Economics on February 16th, 2011. Sixty years after the birth of the new order in the mid 1940’s, Mr. Pronk questions where the world is today and points out the need to reform and strenghten international institutions in order to uphold global values. The integral text and a selection of some of the most significant parts of the lecture are published here.

The world needs common values and common institutions. Powerful institutions lacking shared values will breed disillusion and conflict. High moral values lacking strong insitutional protection will breed hypocrisy and exclusion (Jan Pronk).

via Society for International Development Forum » Planet of great opportunities, by Jan Pronk.

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Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation

– 25 February 2011Posted in: Development, OECD

Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation.

Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation

“Open aid” is the name of the next step in the reform of Sweden´s development cooperation. The step is being taken to better adapt development cooperation to today´s reality and the opportunities created by globalisation and technological development. The goal is to achieve as effective poverty reduction as possible. To achieve this goal, development cooperation must be opened up to transparency and ideas from others.

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Choosing and Using Performance Measurement Indicators – capacity4dev

– 15 February 2011Posted in: Evaluation

http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/macro-eco_pub-fin/.

How can you use a barometer to measure the temperature? You can’t and that’s the point: Selecting the right metrics near the outset of a public policy programme is one of the keys to properly measuring impact, according to a new guide, ‘Policy Steering – The Role and Use of Performance Measurement Indicators.’

Increasing levels of democratisation coupled with tighter budgets are fuelling a growing public demand for accountability, as pointed out by the report prepared by experts Pascal Delorme and Olivier Chatelain for EuropeAid. Further, the ability to access information eases the public’s ability to make value comparisons themselves.

So, outcome indicators linked to reform objectives are now indispensable when it comes to measuring the impact of a given policy, improving decision-making processes or making parliaments, civil society and the general public clearly aware of the impact of the reforms in progress.

However, the great variety of situations and objectives means that there are no ‘turnkey’ tools or lists of pre-defined indicators which match the specific circumstances and priorities of each partner country.

To help tackle the delicate issue of choosing sectoral indicators, the guide offers a reasoned method, divided into three stages, to aid the reader and everyone involved in the implementation of a performance-based approach (notably in budget support programmes, but not exclusively) and the definition or choice of the associated indicators.

The first stage involves identifying needs: what information would shed light on or reflect the specific policy aspects and challenges on which attention is to be focused?Policy Steering – The Role and Use of Performance Measurement Indicators

The second stage makes it possible to determine whether the indicators relevant to the identification of needs have the necessary characteristics to be used to set targets, to monitor progress and to be available as required.

The third stage involves formally recording the chosen indicators on a fact-sheet designed to provide comprehensive information about the calculation of the indicator, document the sources used, communicate any reservations as to the quality of those sources and give a brief idea of how the indicator can be used and interpreted.

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UN Conference on Financing for Development calls for reform of the financial architecture

– 11 December 2008Posted in: Africa, Development, Economy

The Doha Conference of the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development adopted, by consensus, a draft outcome document (http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/CONF.212/L.1/REV.1). It calls for a reform of international financial institutions and for including leading emerging countries in decision-making.

In a final statement, delegates noted that the financial crisis plaguing the world ”makes imperative a more fundamental review of the global institutions that govern international trade and finance. ”Measures taken to deal with the crisis should include reforms that ensure a more equitable and stable global financial system, which would provide the basis for sustainable and equitable development for all countries,” the Statement said. The meeting noted that the severity of the current financial crisis called for” bold action” to ensure continued funding to help the world’s poor nations raise their standards of living. ”The Review Conference reaffirmed Monterrey goals, took hesitant note of the current crises and their impacts, failed to move adequately forward in a number of urgent subjects, but moved beyond Monterrey in several important areas,” the statement said.

”The Review Conference took hesitant note of the current crises and their impacts, failed to move adequately forward in a number of urgent subjects, but moved beyond Monterrey in several important areas,” the present 250 NGOs stated. ”It is time that decent work and gender equality took center stage in the debate on financing for development, and the fact that the outcome document refers to these concepts is a step forward in this direction. At the same time, civil society and trade unions, which are development actors in their own right, must be given a voice in the process,” argued Conny Reuter, the secretary general of SOLIDAR.
Official Conference Website: http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha/

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Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) shall reform aid

– 11 September 2008Posted in: Development, Trade

Developed and developing countries agreed to take bold steps to reform the way aid is given and spent. After three days of intense negotiations, they endorsed the Accra Agenda for Action (see http://www.accrahlf.net). Developing countries are committing to take control of their own futures, donors to co-ordinating better amongst themselves, and both parties to the Agenda are pledging to account to each other and their citizens.

The Accra Agenda for Action is the product of an unprecedented alliance of development partners – developing and donor countries, emerging economies, UN and multilateral institutions, global funds and civil society organisations. They all participated in the discussions leading up to the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, hosted by the Government of Ghana and organised by OECD and the World Bank, in Accra.

Key points agreed in the Accra Agenda for Action include:
- Predictability – donors will provide 3-5 year forward information on their planned aid to partner countries.
- Country systems – partner country systems will be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor systems.
- Conditionality – donors will switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development objectives.
- Untying – donors will relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying the goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they can get the best quality at the lowest price.

In a short blog, the Eldis Editor reviews reaction to the proceedings and considers whether the AAA has made a real contribution to improving the aid effectiveness agenda: http://tinyurl.com/5duf9p

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Moving Toward Competitiveness: A Value-Chain Approach

– 11 February 2008Posted in: Development, Publications

Developing countries face tremendous opportunities for economic growth given economic liberalization worldwide, and rapid advancement and application of information and communications technologies. However, along with the many opportunities global network trade has to offer, firms in developing countries also face strong competitive pressures for greater efficiency and productivity to maintain market share or even survive. A strong business environment based on sound institutions and policies is a necessary basis for enhanced competitiveness of private firms that produce and deliver goods and services. When business environment constraints – inefficiencies and cost disadvantages – can be identified, policy makers have the opportunity to jumpstart economic reform processes that target priority areas along the product/service life cycle known as the value chain. This technical report outlines a pragmatic approach for analyzing value chain performance as the basis for identifying binding constraints to growth and competitiveness. This approach is intended to facilitate formulating a targeted reform agenda.
http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/MovingTowardCompetitiveness/$FILE/Value+Chain+Manual.pdf

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Accra Conference: Business environment reform: Syntheses, Conferences papers

– 25 November 2007Posted in: Uncategorized

Most of the Papers and Presentations from the Conference have now been posted to the Business Environment Working Group of the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development. Of particular importance is the draft BE Donor Guidance, under b); your comments are invited at the dedicated blog at http://donorguidance.blogspot.com. In due course, the remaining Papers and presentations from the Conference (including more documents in French) will also be posted. http://www.businessenvironment.org/dyn/be/besearch.details?p_phase_id=142&p_lang=en&p_phase_type_id=6

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