Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

Introduction
OECD 1999
Chapter 1
Country Programme Evaluation:
Synthesis Report from the Workshop
by Tim Conway and Simon Maxwell,*
Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Since the mid-1980s, official development agencies have moved towards
country programming. Many individual donors have made efforts to concentrate
their aid upon a limited number of countries and to ensure that it is relevant and
coherent with regard to the specific problems and opportunities of these
countries. The shift towards country programming has been slower in some
agencies than in others. Nonetheless, for many donors the partner country has
become the logical unit of account and evaluation – especially with the recent
revival of interest in the role of the State as the key external determinant of aid
performance. 1
Reflecting the shift towards country programming, from the late 1980s donors
began to use Country Programme Evaluations (CPEs) to complement project or sectoral
evaluations. A workshop on this topic was convened in Vienna by the DAC
Expert Group on Aid Evaluation from 11th-12th March 1999, in order to review experience
and to share lessons about what appear to be the strengths and weaknesses
of different approaches to Country Programme Evaluation. This workshop concentrated
upon progress made since the first workshop on the subject, also held in
Vienna, in May 1994.
* This paper synthesises the proceedings of a workshop on country programme evaluation,
held in Vienna in March 1999. It draws upon the presentations and discussions at that
Workshop and the various papers which were circulated by speakers and other participants.
It has been prepared by the Overseas Development Institute, with funding from the Development
Co-operation Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the various participants
at the Workshop who have made suggestions at the time or since. The view expressed in the
report remain those of the authors.
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