Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

OECD 1999
French Experience with Country Programme Evaluations
have been finalised, and increase the involvement of the administration’s technical
bodies. Demand remains high, and is routinely based on a quantitative assessment
of aid, extended to encompass all French co-operation players in a country.
CPEs also provide an opportunity to identify more targeted evaluation needs,
such as project and sector evaluations, for which the CPE can constitute an important
benchmark. CPEs and other types of evaluation have become increasingly
interlinked. Project and/or sectoral evaluations can fuel a CPE, which can itself identify
a need for a more specific project or sector evaluation.
In addition, the existence of more than one CPE can result in sectoral evaluations
and inter-country or intra-zone instruments being undertaken. CPEs allow the
scope of strategic analysis to be broadened.
The DAC criteria have proved very useful, although their application (impact,
in particular) is more difficult in the area of CPEs than in project and programme
evaluations.
The main preoccupation of evaluators is usually the relevance of co-operation
actions. This concept is put into perspective in relation to partner country expectations
and needs, and to French co-operation objectives, both stated and implicit.
Coherence is applicable on an “internal” and “external” basis, since links
between the various forms of intervention by the French Ministry of Co-operation
need to be examined, as does co-ordination among the various bilateral and multilateral
lenders. This latter point is regularly underlined, often in connection with
its weakness.
Effectiveness and efficiency are assessed by studying projects and programmes.
It is difficult to examine co-operation policy from the point of view of
these criteria. The same is true with regard to quality. However, these criteria can
be assessed by examining co-operation instruments (technical assistance, expert
missions, funding, operators, etc.), and are useful when formulating general recommendations
on intervention methods.
Evaluators routinely consider the partnership aspect. Support for institutional
development has become a focal point of the French Ministry of Co-operation, at
both central and decentralised levels, in a governmental perspective and for the
greater good of society. This is where the criteria of efficiency and viability or sustainability
assume their full importance.
How are CPEs findings taken into account by beneficiary countries and donors
in adjusting development strategies and donor-supported programmes?
The reporting and feedback effect mechanism is based on a number of simple
principles, but is not standardised, because it must be tailored to the context and
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