In this Research Project Paper, CEDIL argues that practitioners can pursue at least three pathways to social accountability scale: the replication of best practice, through leveraging the countervailing power of resistance, and seeking resonance with existing public sector efforts.

This glossary developed by the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank provides translation of all evaluation technical terms between English, French and Arabic, based on the OECD-DAC Network on Development Evaluation originally published in 2002.

CEDIL's working paper demonstrates that measurement is crucial to evaluation. Without appropriate measures, we cannot assess the effectiveness of policy. In this latest CEDIL Methods Working Paper, the authors address several conceptual issues linked to the construction and validation of appropriate...

This guideline of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) of South Africa provides guidance to evaluators and commissioners of evaluation on how to apply an equity criterion in evaluation.

This guideline from the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) of South Africa provides technical guidance on applying a Climate and Ecosystem Health (CEH) lens when undertaking evaluative work.

This manual from ENAP demonstrates key concepts, methodological issues, as well as practical examples from the authors and reflective chapters. The manual is organized by: (1) a conceptual phase, (2) methodological phase, (3) empirical and analytical phase, (4) dissemination and transfer phase.

This synthesis questions the neutrality of evaluations and recalls evaluators to their responsibilities. Evaluations depend on the context and culture. Consequently, evaluators should be open to other worldviews, rethink their values and evaluation practices.

This presentation illustrates four pathways how Country-led Evaluations can inform the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). The presentation also demonstrates the difference with the Country-led Evaluations and VNRs.

Seven years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, methods and approaches for evaluating sustainable development interventions have remained largely unchanged and are failing to provide a basis for understanding how future sustainable development interventions can withstand...

This book explores a range of new and older systems mapping methods focused on representing causal relationships in systems. In a practical manner, it describes the methods and considers the differences between them; describes how to use them yourself; describes how to choose between and combine...

Hivos values working with Theory of Change (ToC) as an appropriate approach to guide its strategic thinking and action, as well as its collaborative action with others. The use of a ToC approach fosters critical questioning of all aspects of change interventions and supports adaptive planning and...

Weiss demonstrates in her article how the rational of conducting an evaluation takes place in a political context, and hence evaluators should recognize the presence of political decisions and the political arena. The author argues that knowing these political constraints is a precondition for...

This paper of CEDIL examines the current state of each of the waves (outcome monitoring, impact evaluation, systematic reviews and knowledge brokering) of the evidence revolution. The paper offers a critical perspective on each wave, and discuss the implications for evaluation in the field of...

This paper of CEDIL looks at the technical issues associated with the representation of Theories of Change and the implications of design choices for the evaluability of those theories.

This paper by CEDIL includes the use of innovative techniques to form the specific evaluative questions being asked and tested, to gather the right type of data and information on outcomes and intermediating variables, to explain findings and to disseminate them to the appropriate decision-makers...

The lack of adequate measures to capture relevant factors, and the prevalence of measurement error in existing ones, often constitute the main impediment to robust policy evaluation. Random assignment of a given treatment, when feasible, may allow for the identification of causal effects, given that...

Systematic reviews summarise and synthesise the global evidence about an intervention. By incorporating causal chain analysis, a systematic review moves beyond the question of ‘does it work?’ to ‘why does it work, for whom, under what circumstances and at what cost?’. The causal chain analysis...

This brief takes a practical, how-to approach in outlining ten steps for building a middle-level theory of change.

In the CEDIL Methods brief, ‘Evaluating complex interventions: What are appropriate methods?’ we identify four types of complex development interventions: long causal chain interventions, multicomponent interventions, portfolio interventions, and system-level interventions. These interventions are...

Timely evaluations produce results when they are needed to inform decision making while using appropriate, rigorous designs. While traditionally evaluations are carried out at the end of a programme, this brief explores methods for evaluation during the course of a programme. Such approaches are...

Choosing appropriate approaches and methods are pre-requisites for credible, independent and useful evaluation exercises in the United Nations. The Compendium of Evaluation Methods Reviewed is a guidance document resulting from discussions among members of the UNEG Working Group on Evaluation...

Impact evaluations are studies that attempt to measure the causal impact of a project, program or policy on one or more outcomes of. This book provides a comprehensive exposition of how to conduct impact evaluations. Part I provides an overview of impact evaluations and comprises five chapters which...

In this paper, fourteen leading evaluation practitioners were asked to reflect on lessons from the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) for evaluation practice. Questions discussed include the following: the importance of evaluating equity between rich and poor countries and other forms of climate...

Sous la direction de Thomas Delahais, Agathe Devaux-Spatarakis, Anne Revillard et Valéry Ridde, cet ouvrage en accès ouvert entend favoriser les échanges et contribuer à la consolidation d’un socle de références communes en évaluation. Nombre d'institutions publiques locales, nationales ou...

This guidance note was developed by the Office of Evaluation (OED) of FAO to support the planning, formulation and conduct of evaluation syntheses. It provides definitions, a typology of synthesis which can be appropriate to conduct depending whether less or more time and resources are available. as...

This note by the Asian Development Bank summarizes the meanings of evaluation utilization and the factors influencing evaluation utilizations based on literature review. Adapted by John Scott Bayley, Evaluation Specialist, ADB, 2018.

This book explores why the Global Environment Facility (GEF) invests in evaluation for accountability and learning to inform its decision-making on programming priorities, and how this leads to wiser funding decisions and better program performance on the ground. The book is based on real-life...

This book, the sixth following an IDEAS Global Assembly, smartly combines conceptual and methodological analyses of and proposals for transformational evaluation and its potential to contribute to transformative development, with a range of practical experiences and testimonies. Additionally, this...

The UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation were first published in 2008. This document is a revision of the original document and was approved at the UNEG AGM 2020. These revised guidelines aim to support UN entity leaders and governing bodies as well as those organizing and conducting evaluations...

This paper describes an evaluation capacity building (ECB) approach designed to help community development practitioners work more effectively with assumptions through the intentional infusion of evaluative thinking (ET) into the program planning, monitoring, and evaluation process. The focus is on...

Evaluation – like development aid itself – can unintentionally exacerbate tensions in ways that can negatively affect people and institutions if care is not taken in designing and approaching it with caution and sensitivity. This practical guidance from global evaluation practitioners, released by...

This brief by Twende Mbele looks at Rapid Evaluations in the public sector of selected African Countries. Rapid evaluations are intended to reduce the costs of evaluation projects and the time they take, by producing a result that can feed into policy and practice quickly, but yet is sufficiently...

Dans cette vidéo, Olivier Cossée du Bureau de l’évaluation de la FAO, donne des conseils pratiques sur comment combiner approches qualitatives et quantitatives dans les études d’impact.

This interactive report has been produced to disseminate the findings of the study on evaluation dissemination at DG DEVCO, EU Delegations and non-EU organisations around the world such as the Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, World...

This paper presents an overview of innovative technologies to overcome the obstacles to evaluation in fragile and conflict affected states and in hard-to reach-areas. It is based on lessons learned from a series of conferences held by the European Union DG DEVCO’s Evaluation Support Service in 2019...

Under the framework of the Covid-19 Evaluation Coalition, Global Affairs Canada, FAO, IFAD, WFP and other agencies identified key lessons that should inform food security and nutrition interventions during covid-19. As a follow-up to this initiative, FAO, IFAD, UNIDO and WFP are launching a rapid...

This statement of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) affirms the significance of cultural competence in evaluation. It also informs the public of AEA’s expectations concerning cultural competence in the conduct of evaluation.

This guide is a result of a partnership between UNICEF's Evaluation Office and CLEAR Anglophone Africa

A synthesis of the results and recommendations of TEEB for Agriculture and Food’s Scientific and Economic Foundations Report This report serves as a synthesis of the 2018 Scientific and Economic Foundations report and proposes a new and comprehensive Evaluation Framework in the field of agriculture...

Utilization Focused Evaluation (UFE) facilitates a learning process in which people in the real world apply evaluation findings and experiences to their work. The focus is on intended users. UFE does not prescribe any specific content, method, or theory. It is a guiding framework, rather than a...

This text, authored by Linda G. Morra Imas and Ray C. Rist, is intended as a tool for use in building development evaluation capacity. It aims to help development evaluators think about and explore the new evaluation architecture and especially to design and conduct evaluations that focus on results...

Local and national evaluators need support if they are to use SDG evaluation as an opportunity to improve policies and programmes closer to home, applying tailored approaches. This guide aims to provide this support and motivate evaluation that embodies the principles of Agenda 2030. The guide is...

The document "Better criteria for better evaluation" describes how the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) revisited the definitions and use of the OECD DAC evaluation criteria in 2018-2019. It lays out adapted definitions for relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and...

Since 2015, the world has shown great enthusiasm for the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.However, after more than four years since the launch of the Agenda, there are at least two threatening challenges for sustainable development. This report not only looks at challenges ahead but also uses...

This document serves as guidance on how the FAO Office of Evaluation can assess the processes and outcomes of FAO capacity development interventions. Although primarily targeting evaluation practitioners in FAO, the framework can be used by anyone engaged in project design, implementation and...

This paper looks at a range of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) innovations that are designed specifically to provide input to ongoing iterative decision-making and learning at the project level. It identifies three key areas for potential innovation: 1) timing of M&E data provision; 2) flexibility...

This publication presents the essential 'things to know' about evaluation in 10 infographics. It was prepared by ODI's Research and Policy in Development Programme (RAPID) in support of the International Year of Evaluation 2015.

Edited by the International Development Evaluation Association - IDEAS, this book presents an authoritative overview of the role of evaluation in generating evidence for informed decision making and learning to advance sustainable development. Agenda 2030 includes the Sustainable Development Goals...

The purpose of this checklist is to guide the process of formulating and delivering evaluation recommendations. It is oriented to evaluators conducting evaluations, but may also be used by commissioners and/or managers of evaluation to help them clarify their expectations concerning recommendations...

This document was shared with EvalForward by Zahid Shabbir, M&E professional/trainer from Pakistan. It provides an overview of the key features of M&E systems.

The Wilton Park event on Revisiting independence, objectivity, and the critically reflective role of evaluation for the SDG era took place from 25 to 27 June in West Sussex, UK. The purpose of this dialogue was to enable a high level, practical but informal debate, addressing conceptual and...

The Independent Evaluation Office and the Government of Turkey co-hosted the 2017 International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) in Istanbul, in collaboration with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS and the European Evaluation Society (EES). The theme of the conference was...