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Evaluating Country Programmes
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our experiences with in-house and external co-operation departments. In addition,
they allow us to identify complementary approaches and a shared vision.
The purpose of CPEs is to assess French co-operation policy, not beneficiary
country policy. They are primarily exercises that assess the effectiveness of our policy
in relation to the goals set for it.
Despite some reservations which have been voiced about the principle of joint
evaluations stricto sensu, the French Ministry of Co-operation has nonetheless collaborated
with beneficiary countries at various stages of CPE execution. For example,
local authorities in Mauritania took part in areas of the CPE which dealt with analysing
the impact of co-operation on beneficiaries. The Beninese authorities were sent
the CPE executive summary. The Cameroon CPE is nearing completion, and its main
findings will be communicated to the national authorities.
Whenever a CPE is launched for a country that has received financial aid, that
country’s participation is sought as a matter of routine. However, success has been
very limited, because the authorities have failed to respond. It is always difficult to
obtain their active involvement.
The Cape Verde CPE, which is just beginning, is aiming for a much greater
degree of partnership: the terms of reference have been sent to the government
authorities and a French delegation visited Praia to discuss ways of participating.
An innovative process is taking shape.
How can development effectiveness and impact be defined and measured
at the country level?
It has been difficult to assess the impact of French aid through CPEs, even in
countries where we have a strong, long-established presence and where our contributions
are such that France is often the leading bilateral lender. The impact is
assessed by sectoral and thematic evaluations and programmes that complement
the CPE or serve as a starting point for it.
Determining and limiting the scope of CPEs is important. CPEs offer a synthetic
approach to assessing the overall impact on a country’s development (improved
infrastructure, higher standards of living, status of public accounts, national debt,
ability to fund new projects).
CPEs must take into account other assessments, where such exist, and simple
qualitative studies when assessing the leverage exerted by our actions at local, sectoral
and national levels. However, direct or indirect “beneficiary” analysis is timeconsuming
and expensive, and this is not the primary objective of CPEs; these do
not target scientific knowledge, but rather how their findings can be used by decision-makers.
The same is true of occasional attempts to specifically evaluate the
visibility and transparency of co-operation, given the close relationship between
OECD 1999