Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

Introduction
OECD 1999
Chapter 8
Country Assistance Strategies
as a Management and Evaluation Instrument
for Donors: Some Conclusions Drawn
from German Experience
by Guido Ashoff, German Development Institute
The term country programme can have two meanings:
– Country programme as the sum of all projects (including possible programme
assistance) being supported by a donor in a given partner country
(project portfolio); country programme evaluations will be taken in this
sense.
– Country programme as the policy or strategy that a donor has conceived for
development co-operation with a partner country.
This chapter is intended to analyse the role that country programmes of the
second type (country assistance strategies) play in managing (planning, monitoring,
adjusting) and evaluating country programmes of the first type (the project portfolios
in partner countries). It is obvious that country programmes in the sense of
country strategy papers should play a crucial role in managing and evaluating
development co-operation with a partner country. Conversely, the quality of development
co-operation with a partner country depends, on the quality of the country
strategy paper.
Country programmes, in the sense of country strategy papers, are used to a
varying degree by a number of donors. This chapte refers to Germany’s experience
with country programmes. They are called country concepts and were introduced
by the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) in 1992
for development co-operation with about 40 partner countries. At present, there are
country concepts for 44 countries (listed in Box 8.1). They are supposed to define a
very limited number of priority areas on which German bilateral development cooperation
is to be concentrated, in order to enhance its continuity and reliability as
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