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Evaluating Country Programmes
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of the Netherlands’ assistance to a particular sector. Financial programme aid was
evaluated separately on the basis of available secondary sources, in particular
evaluation and completion reports of the IMF and World Bank and reports about
the performance of the Social Fund for Development.
Project aid was clustered into five main categories: 1) water management and
drainage; 2) agriculture and animal husbandry; 3) drinking water and sanitation;
4) health and population; and 5) infrastructure and transport. Activities which did
not fit into these categories were classified as miscellaneous. The first four categories
were included in the evaluation on the basis of two criteria: their importance in
financial terms and their relevance for the programme during the period 1986-1996.
In each cluster included in the evaluation, projects were selected for more
detailed assessment. To this end, project profiles were made for all major activities
(i.e. those over USD50 000 in disbursements) according to a standard format and on
the basis of information available in the files in the Ministry. These profiles contained
information concerning a project’s justification, history and implementation
record, objectives and approach, results and bottlenecks. In addition, they
included a tentative assessment of effectiveness and efficiency based on previous
project evaluations. Each profile was supplemented with a set of questions to be
included in the subsequent field study to fill gaps in knowledge, verify crucial information
and add recent developments.
The field studies were contracted out to specialised evaluation teams consisting
of Egyptian and European experts. For each field study, separate terms of reference
were formulated, which included more detailed key questions, main
aspects of evaluation and indicators to measure effectiveness. In order to put the
activities supported by the Netherlands in their proper context, a separate analysis
was made for each sector in the evaluation involving the main characteristics,
potentials and constraints, government policy, the institutional framework, the role
of aid in the sector, and the main donors’ support to the sector.
In addition, a study was made of the Netherlands’ aid provided to the Fayoum
Governorate. This area received some 30% of total bilateral project aid in the 1990s.
The Fayoum study focused on the value added of geographical concentration at subnational
level and the relevance and effects of the Netherlands’ aid as perceived by
the governorate administration, and by the beneficiaries in two communities.
Finally, a separate study was made of the bilateral relations between the
Netherlands and Egypt, including political, economic, cultural and scientific
relations. Trends in these relations since the mid-1970s, and links with the aid
programme were assessed.
Various efforts were made to involve participation of the host country in the
evaluation process. First, the IOB team that co-ordinated the evaluation visited the
relevant administrative bodies in Egypt to discuss the reasons, objectives and
OECD 1999