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Evaluating Country Programmes
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Notes
1. The five priorities of the Swiss Development Co-operation outlined in the Guidelines
(1991) are: 1) Promotion of state and economic independence. 2) Supporting the poor.
3) Overcoming environmental problems. 4) Improving conditions of production. And
5) Health care, education and training. In 1998, new Guidelines were formulated. The
five above priorities are also the “Pole Star” for the Swiss co-operation activities.
2. This Law already included an evaluation clause.
3. However, since 1994, important changes have taken place in the implementation of the
guidelines. For this reason, workshops were organised in October and November 1998 within
the SDC to record the developments since 1994. The collection of information was strongly
geared towardss the Division for Bilateral Co-operation, where the pioneering efforts took
place. The SDC works in 21 countries in the South, but only 17 countries are considered priority
countries and for this reason have also a standardised country programme. Meanwhile,
in the other partner countries, development is guided by co-operation concepts. Twelve
country programmes out of 17 existing within the Division for Bilateral Co-operation were
studied. The Division for the Co-operation with the East was integrated within the SDC in
1994. For this reason, the formulation of fully-fledged CPs did not start before 1998. The
two programmes which are the most advanced in the formulation of the country programme
(Kirgistan, Romania) were integrated in the sample. Planned also are CPs for
five other countries in the East, namely Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia and the
Ukraine.
4. In addition to the SDC-initiated country programme evaluations, periodic programme
audits on behalf of the Swiss Parliament by the Federal Financial Control also exist,
which indicate relevance, effectiveness and efficiency.
5. In other countries a Federal Department corresponds to a Ministry. For more information
on the Swiss Development Aid, see OECD/DAC Development Co-operation Review
Series, No. 20: Switzerland (1996), Paris, 1997.
6. The process of its elaboration was presented at the CPE Seminar 1994 in Vienna
(see Appendix 10.2). In 1998, it served as a model for the elaboration of the country programme
Tanzania, which was the case study for the CPE Seminar 1999 (see chapter 9 in
this volume).
7. In the PEMT philosophy, two types of evaluation are distinguished: self-evaluation and
external evaluation. These have distinct procedures and aims. Self-evaluation is a
responsibility of the specific team involved in a common task, project or programme,
implies an internal look of the team, and is process-oriented. Self-evaluations should be
conducted at regular intervals, e.g. every 6 months. For these characteristics, the ownership,
process, reports and results are with the team. External evaluation is contracted
out, has a limited duration, implies a look from outside and is mainly oriented on
OECD 1999