Tag: BMZ

Tools and Methods for Evaluating the Efficiency of Development Interventions

The report has been commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Foreword: “Previous BMZ Evaluation Working Papers have focused on measuring impact. The present paper explores approaches for assessing efficiency. Efficiency is a powerful concept for decision making and ex post assessments of development interventions but, nevertheless, often treated rather superficially in project appraisal, project completion and evaluation reports.  Assessing efficiency is not an easy task but with potential for improvements, as the report shows. Starting with definitions and the theoretical foundations the author proposes a three level classification related to the analytical power of efficiency analysis methods. Based on an extensive literature review and a broad range of interviews, the report identifies and describes 15 distinct methods and explains how they can be used to assess efficiency. It concludes with an overall assessment of the methods described and with recommendations for their application and further development.”

Click here to download the presentation held at the meeting of the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation in Paris on June 24, 2011 and here for the presentation held at the annual conference of the American Evaluation Society in Anaheim on November 3, 2011.

For questions, you can reach the author at markus@devstrat.org.

We hope you enjoy the report,

Michaela Zintl (Head of Evaluation and Audit Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), Markus Palenberg. (Director, Institute for Development Strategy)

Micro-Methods in Evaluating Governance Interventions

This paper is available as a pdf.  It should be cited as follows: Garcia, M. (2011): Micro-Methods in Evaluating Governance Interventions. Evaluation Working Papers. Bonn: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung.

The aim of this paper is to present a guide to impact evaluation methodologies currently used in the field of governance. It provides an overview of a range of evaluation techniques – focusing specifically on experimental and quasi-experimental designs. It also discusses some of the difficulties associated with the evaluation of governance programmes and makes suggestions with the aid of examples from other sectors. Although it is far from being a review of the literature on all governance interventions where rigorous impact evaluation has been applied, it nevertheless seeks to illustrate the potential for conducting such analyses.

This paper has been produced by Melody Garcia, economist at the German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, DIE). It is a part of a two-year research project on methodological issues related to evaluating budget support funded by the BMZ’s evaluation division. The larger aim of the project is to contribute to the academic debate on methods of policy evaluation and to the development of a sound and theoretically grounded approach to evaluation. Further studies are envisaged.

Tools and Methods for Evaluating the Efficiency of Development Interventions

Palenberg, M. (2011),  Evaluation Working Papers. Bonn: Bundesministe-rium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung. Available as pdf.

Foreword:

Previous BMZ Evaluation Working Papers have focused on measuring impact. The present paper explores approaches for assessing efficiency. Efficiency is a powerful concept for decision making and ex-post assessments of development interventions but, nevertheless, often treated rather superficially in project appraisal, project completion and evaluation reports. Assessing efficiency is not an easy task but with potential for improvements, as the report shows. Starting with definitions and the theoretical foundations the author proposes a three level classification related to the analytical power of efficiency analysis methods. Based on an extensive literature review and a broad range of interviews, the report identifies and describes 15 distinct methods and explains how they can be used to assess efficiency. It concludes with an overall assessment of the methods described and with recommendations for their application and further development.

GTZ/BMZ Evaluation and Systems Conference papers

(via Bob Williams on EvalSys)

Systemic Approaches in Evaluation

Documentation of the Conference on 25-26 January 2011

“Development programs promote complex reforms and change processes. Such processes are often characterized by insecurity and unpredictability, posing a big challenge to the evaluation of development projects. In order to understand which projects work, why and under which conditions, evaluations also need to embrace the interaction of various influencing factors and the multi-dimensionality of societal change. However, present evaluation approaches often premise predictability and linearity of event chains.

In order to fill this gap, systemic approaches in evaluation of development programs are increasingly being discussed. A key concept is interdependency instead of linear cause-effect-relations. Systemic approaches in evaluation focus on interrelations and the interaction between various stakeholders with different motivations, interests, perceptions and perspectives.

On January 25 and 26, 2011 the Evaluation and Audit Division of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Evaluation Unit of GIZ offered a forum to discuss systemic approaches to evaluation at an international conference.
More than 200 participants from academia, consulting firms and NGOs discussed, amongst others, the following questions:

  • What are systemic approaches in evaluation?
  • For which kind of evaluations are systemic approaches (not) useful? Can they be used to enhance accountability, for example?
  • Are rigorous impact studies and systemic evaluations antipodes or can we combine elements of both approaches?
  • Which concrete methods and tools can be used in systemic evaluation?

On this website you will find the documentation of all sessions, speeches and discussion rounds. The main conclusions of the conference were summarized in the  final panel discussion.”

 

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