Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

OECD 1999
Foreword
Since the mid-1980s development agencies have increasingly targeted development
assistance at the country level. This approach provides a rational framework
that can be used to improve relevance, effectiveness and coherence of
development assistance programmes.
The increasingly widespread adoption of country assistance strategies has
challenged evaluators to assess results at the country level. As documented in this
publication, development agencies have employed a range of different approaches
to carry out country programme evaluations.
In order to review these experiences and to share lessons about strengths and
weaknesses inherent in different approaches to country programme evaluation, the
Working Party on Aid Evaluation organised a workshop in Vienna on 11-12 March 1999.
This workshop principally focused on progress made since the first country programme
evaluation workshop, also held in Vienna, in May 1994.
This publication provides a unique overview of approaches and methods for
country programme evaluation. It contains i) an analytical review of the workshop’s
main findings; ii) an overview of the state-of-the-art approaches and methodologies
used for country programme evaluations; and iii) the case studies, which were presented
and discussed at the workshop.
Special thanks are due to the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – who hosted the
workshop – for their hospitality and assistance, and in particular to Brigitte Dekrout,
Director of the Department for Audit and Evaluation. We are also grateful to DAC
Members who contributed interesting case studies (France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, United States, European Commission, Inter-American Development Bank
and the World Bank), and financial support (Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and
United Kingdom). The publication was prepared by the Development Co-operation
Directorate of the OECD under the direction of Hans Lundgren and Maria Iarrera, with
editing assistance by Carola Miras and Marcia Bystrom.
Niels Dabelstein
Chair of the Working Party on Aid Evaluation
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