Evaluation
By evaluation, the Austrian Development Cooperation and Cooperation with Eastern Europe (ADC) understands the assessment of a project or programme (or an instrument of implementation or an institution) with the greatest possible degree of thoroughness and objectivity, based on criteria pertaining to development policy goals and the particular area concerned.
The results of evaluation serve the purpose of informing the public on activities and achievements of the ADC as well as accounting for the use of funds received towards political decision-makers and tax payers.
On the other hand, evaluation is also needed in order to ensure high levels of quality and effectiveness of development activities. It is an instrument for project and programme managers to monitor and improve implementation. Thus, it essentially contributes to an ongoing process of learning in the ADC and it helps partner organisations in developing countries – both NGOs and governmental institutions – to improve their work.
Since Austria and its partner countries have committed themselves to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, the results of evaluation are also used to review progress made in this respect and to take corrective measures if necessary.
Quality criteria
As a rule, evaluation is carried out by teams of independent interdisciplinary experts, in cooperation with local specialists and on the basis of the following central criteria:
- compliance with the fundamental principles of Austria’s development policy (poverty eradication, democratic development and human rights, gender equality, with particular regard paid to specific cultural and ecological environments);
- relevance and commensurateness of interventions in relation to actual local and national needs;
- participation and assuming of (shared) responsibility by the project partner(s);
- impact or consequences of interventions compared to the overall situation of the target group or stakeholders;
- sustainability and long-term effectiveness of interventions and their consequences;
- effectiveness or actual impact of projects or programmes in terms of their defined objectives as well as efficiency or economical utilisation of resources.
ADC and ADA joint responsibility for evaluation
Since the establishment of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) on 1 January 2004, evaluation has come under the joint responsibility of ADA’s Evaluation Unit and the competent department of the ADC in the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs. While the tasks of the ADC in the Foreign Ministry primarily include dialogue and coordination of evaluation activities with other donors as well as drawing up bi-annual evaluation programmes, the ADA is in charge of steering concrete evaluations, direct contacts with partner organisations and assistance of the individual country desks. Today, external project evaluations are primarily controlled by the country desks, while the ADA/ADC evaluation team places the main focus of its activities on strategic, cross-cutting evaluations at country, sector, programme and policy issue levels aimed at promoting policy dialogue.
Retrospect and perspectives
Work in the field of evaluation has become more and more fascinating and also challenging in the last few years. In addition to the double function of evaluation (i.e. contribution to a learning process and accounting for the use of funds), in view of recent developments new methods of and approaches to evaluation have become necessary. These developments include the stronger orientation of the ADC towards programme support instead of project focuses, new fields of intervention such as democratic governance as well as business and development and the introduction of participatory methods of evaluation, and eventually evaluations carried out in concert with other donors, which in future will become increasingly important.
Furthermore it is a great challenge to communicate and institutionalise the results of evaluation in a way that ensures integration of these results in both policy dialogue and practical development cooperation.
