Evaluation Gap update
March 2006
Results from CGD Consultation and Survey
Since September 2005 CGD has been in the process of consulting a large group of diverse stakeholders to get feedback on its consultation draft report. An online survey with 61 respondents (out of over 500 recipients) asked specific questions relating to impact evaluation and the proposal for an independent, collective evaluation facility (read the results pdf). CGD also solicited feedback from 100 individuals via meetings in London, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Menlo Park, California; in-person interviews; phone calls; and e-mail. Read a brief summary of the feedback (pdf). Input is being considered by the working group in drafting the final report to be launched in May 2006 via this listserve and at a public event in Washington, DC.
DAC's Development Cooperation Report Calls for Improved Impact Evaluation
The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD recently released its 2005 Development Cooperation Report. The overview chapter by DAC Chair, Richard Manning, calls for improved impact evaluation: “There is a need to bring together good practice from developing countries and the donor community in several linked areas, such as better statistics for policymakers, more and better impact evaluations and more high-quality performance assessment frameworks in developing countries, in line with the target set under the Paris Declaration. This is crucial if we are to be better able to account for the effectiveness of the development effort by the time of the next five-year review of progress towards the MDGs in 2010.” Manning also says that evaluations “should be at least as important for the recipient as for the donor” as was demonstrated by the much-cited evaluation of the Progresa program in Mexico.
