Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

OECD 1999
Country Programme Evaluation: Synthesis Report from the Workshop
Box 1.2. Approaches to Country Programme Evaluation
Two possible approaches to Country Programme Evaluation are described.
These are “ideal types”, describing opposite ends of a spectrum. Most real-world
CPEs fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. Nonetheless, they are provided
to guide donors in planning CPEs.
An ambitious or “heavy” CPE is defined as one which looks at impact, examines
both the majority of CP components and overall CP performance, and addresses a
long period of donor-partner relations. Such an approach is most suitable and most
rewarding when there is something of value to learn from a major CPE and good prospects
of being able to learn this. Specifically:
– The donor’s aid to that country is formulated as an integrated country
programme rather than merely a collection of projects.
– Good national development performance data are available (baseline and
current).
– The donor operates in relatively few countries.
– The donor dominates aid to the country in question, aid plays a major role in
the development performance of the country, and/or the country programme
in question represents a significant part of the donor’s global activities.
– The country programme is either representative of most other country
programmes administered by that donor (when conclusions about aid effectiveness
can be imputed to these other countries) or when it represents a
pilot for a new approach (when the strengths and weaknesses of the new
approach can be used when introducing it in other country programmes).
– There is a good information base on the country programme (M and E database,
clear reporting history, etc.) and activities lend themselves to comparison and
scoring.
– Time, money and skills are available for evaluation.
– There are good prospects for co-operation with state and civil partner institutions
and interest from these partners in the findings and recommendations
of the evaluation.
It can be reliably scheduled to contribute to the formulation of a major new
country programme or reasonably expected to have real influence upon the development
of agency-wide approach.
A simpler or “light” CPE is defined as one which addresses only the relatively
straightforward performance criteria (e.g. relevance and efficiency), concentrates
upon recent, current and near-future activities, and aims for indicative rather than
conclusive findings. It is most suitable when:
– The donor’s aid to the country in question is dominated by individual
projects for which there are existing evaluations: the CPE can confine itself to
a review of these findings and an examination of their relevance and the
degree to which projects are or could be integrated.
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