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Evaluating Country Programmes
70
Box 2.2. Different Definitions of Evaluation Criteria
Used in CPEs or CPE Guidelines
Efficiency: “… concerns the organisation and management of the programme.
With regard to organisation, the focus is on factors which influenced decisionmaking
in the Netherlands regarding the composition of the programme. With
regard to management the focus is on the capability to guide and monitor the preparation
and implementation of development activities.”
(Netherlands/India, 1994: 50)
“… assesses whether the activities have been carried out efficiently in order to
yield the project results. Have the means of the project been efficiently transformed
through the project’s activities into the various project results? Could the
same or similar results have been achieved at lower cost?”
(EU Commission, 1995, reproduced in Maxwell et al. Ethiopia: 2)
Effectiveness:
“… the contribution to [the country’s] macro-economic self-reliance, poverty
alleviation, and the sustainability of project results.”
(Netherlands/India, 1994: 50)
Relevance:
“… refers to how the project or the programme is related to the poverty profile
and the scope for interventions identified.”
(Danida/Nepal, 1995: 58)
Sustainability:
“… is judged from the way in which institutional arrangements are made to
ensure a lasting impact on poverty alleviation”
(Danida/Nepal, 1995: 58)
One of the most extensive discussions of sustainability in the particular context
of technical assistance is provided by UNDP:
“Technical assistance, especially in TA projects, is an imprecise and variable
state. It can be gained or lost as a result of changes in government policies or imperatives
or through technical advances or obsolescence. It is, therefore, more often a
promise than a fact; an expression of expectations at the time the judgement is
made…
“Technical assistance is an instrument of change. That change begins in the
minds of men [sic], through education and training. For that change to endure and
prosper, it needs to be institutionalised… A development project is said to have
reached the threshold of sustainability when its objectives have been fully
achieved, essential trained staff are appointed on a permanent basis, and all
project equipment is functioning well with sound maintenance practices in place.”
(UNDP/Myanmar, 1994: 53-55)
OECD 1999