Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

Executive summary
OECD 1999
Chapter 10
Country Programme Planning
and Country Programme Evaluation (CPE)
within the Swiss Agency for Development
and Co-operation (SDC)
by Edita Vokral, Swiss Agency
for Development Co-operation (SDC), Bern
The topics of this paper concern the principles and practices of the internal
SDC system of Country programme (CP) evaluations and planning. The paper is
based on SDC guidelines, internal SDC workshops, answers to questionnaires and
internal documents as well as on discussions within the SDC Controlling Units. It
also attempts to answer the questions formulated for the Country programme Evaluation
(CPE) Seminar in Vienna, 1999. These questions have determined the structure
of this paper.
First, co-operation concepts with partner countries were elaborated within
SDC in the early eighties. In the nineties, a series of country programme reviews/
evaluations were implemented. This led to the formulation of the SDC guidelines
for country programme elaboration. The country programmes are internal SDC management
instruments.
The operational line is responsible for all measures regarding planning, evaluation
and monitoring (PEMT-cycle). This philosophy, together with the historical
evolution of the SDC country programmes, results in the co-existence of different
approaches, processes and choices of methodology. However, there are some common
features in the SDC approach:
– Self-evaluation processes are seen as the most effective means to ensure
learning and ownership.
– The linkage of self-evaluation and external evaluation intends to strike a balance
between learning processes and accountability.
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