Partners in Development Evaluation - Learning and Accountability - Workshop organised by France and the DAC Working Party on Aid Evaluation Paris, 25-26 March 2003

Background and Context

There is growing interest and demand in the development community at large and the public to demonstrate results and the effectiveness of development assistance assessed in an independent and credible fashion. This provides both a challenge and an opportunity for evaluation as it plays an instrumental role in efforts aimed at stronger results focus and lesson learning for improved future assistance programmes and projects.

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party on Aid Evaluation has decided to share and exchange knowledge, experiences and evaluation approaches with the various evaluation communities.

To this end, the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry is organising and hosting, in collaboration with the Working Party on Aid Evaluation, a workshop in Paris, March 25-26^th, 2003.

Purpose and Themes of the Workshop

The overall purpose is to share experiences and approaches, to strengthen collaboration between development partners and to improve evaluation relevance and aid effectiveness.

The specific objectives are to exchange and share evaluation knowledge around four themes :

1. Evaluation standards, practices and approaches of the different development partners
2. New development challenges and evaluation
3. Evaluation as a means to accountability
4. Enhancing evaluation capacity and exploring ways to collaborate.

The workshop brings together evaluation managers and specialists from the various development communities. Participants come from DAC donor agencies, multilateral organisations and development banks, civil society organisations including NGOs, trade unions, private foundations, faith-based groups. They include specialists from partner countries, too.

Programme

Tuesday, 25^th March

8h45 - 9h30 : Registration

9h30 - 10h : Introduction

• Welcome by Mr Francis Mer, French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry
• Introduction by Mr Rob D. van den Berg, Working Party on Aid Evaluation (WP-EV) Chair

10h - 13h : Session 1

Evaluation Practices

Donors and civil society organisations will present their evaluation approaches and practices. Key issues such as "Are objectives and methods similar? What are the constraints faced by each evaluation community ? What can we learn from each other ?" will be addressed.

• Chair: Mr Henri Rouillé d'Orfeuil, Chair, Coordination Sud
• Rapporteur: Mr Hans Lundgren, Advisor, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD.

Donors

• "Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party on Aid Evaluation", Mr Rob D. van den Berg, WP-EV Chair.
• "United Nations Inter Agency Working Group on Evaluation (IAWG) : Partners in evaluation", Khalid Malik, IAWG Chair and Director, Evaluation Office, United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
• "Note on the Evaluation Co-operation Group (ECG) of the Multilateral Development Banks Evaluation Co-operation Group", Gregory K. Ingram, ECG incoming Chair, Director-General Operations Evaluation Department World Bank.

Civil Society Organisations

• “Towards organisational performance assessment: experiences of strengthening learning, accountability and understanding social change”, Margaret Niewens British Overseas Aid Group (BOAG).
• "Evaluation challenges as seen by Norwegian non-governmental organisations and partners", Pia Reierson, Director Programme Support, Aasa Sildnes, Development Specialist and Susie Tapia, Regional Director, Stromme Foundation.
• "Ambitions of partnership between NGOs and Governments : Evaluation as a contribution for public policies refunding", François Doligez, IRAM.

Discussion

13h - 14h30 : Lunch

14h30 - 18h : Session 2

New development challenges and evaluation

This session, divided in four parallel subgroups, will aim at addressing challenges for evaluation emerging from current trends of development and identifying best practices coming from each community. Short presentations and roundtable discussion will highlight the methods used.

Sub-group 1: Participatory evaluation	Sub-group 2: Impact Assessment
Chair: Ms Roz David, Action Aid Rapporteur: Mr Goberdhan Singh, Director of Evaluation, Canadian International Development Agency	Chair: Ms Karen Odhiambo, Chair, Kenya Evaluation Association Rapporteur: Mr Michael Hippler, Head of Evaluation and Quality Management Department, MISEREOR.
"How are we doing? Participation evaluation in the practice of Handicap international", Nick Heeren, Director of Programmes at Handicap International. "An evaluation conducted from the South of Development Education in the North", Stiann van der Merwe, South Africa. "Evaluating change in educational development, a case study of two Namibian education projects", Ursula Van Harmelen, Senior lecturer, Rhodes University, South Africa. "From participatory evaluation to specified Funds for evaluation in partner countries", Caroline Guillot-Marchi, consultant, Fondation de France. Discussion	Part I: Case studies on social impact "Approaches to measuring and reporting on impact. The work of two Norwegian NGOs in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka", Marit Haug, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR). "Building Capacities of Women and Health NGOs to monitor and evaluate international development commitments in Asia", Jashodhara Dasgupta SAHAYOG, India. "Evaluation: a trade union perspective", Bandula Kothaloawala, Trades Union Congress (TUC), United Kingdom. Part II: New approaches on impact evaluation "Selecting indicators for impact evaluation", Nurul Alam, UNDP. Discussion
Sub-group 3: Internalisation of evaluation results	Sub-Group 4: Evaluation of humanitarian or conflict-related assistance
Chair: Mr Jean Quesnel, Director, Office of Evaluation, UNICEF Rapporteur: Mr Paolo Basurto, ICU	Chair: Mr Colin Kirk, Head of Evaluation Department, DFID Rapporteur: Mr Ted Kliest, Evaluator, Ministry of Foreign affairs in Netherlands
"Internalising evaluation results through learning: complementary perspectives, dilemmas and some lessons learned", Paul G.H. Engel, Director, European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM). "Learning and growing through development project: a Trade Union Experience in the Philippines", Patricia Rizon Quiaoit, PSLink, Philippines. "What conditions for an optimal internalisation of evaluation?", Patrick Durish, Fondation Terre des Hommes, Switzerland. "Assessing the performance of the Civil Society Challenge Fund", Mike Battcock Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom. "Evaluation, a key point for future cooperation", Sergio Marelli, Chairman, Italian NGO Association. Discussion	"Assessment of the impact of political cooperation programmes on the development of conflicts", Ulrich Storck, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). "Practice makes perfect? ALNAP's assessment of the quality of 165 evaluations of humanitarian action, 2000-2002", John Mitchell, Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP). "From evaluation to training through operational research and capitalisation of experience", François Grünewald, Chairman, Groupe Urgence Réhabilitation Developpement (URD). Discussion

18h30 - 20h : Cocktail offered by Mr Jouyet, Treasury Director

Wednesday, March 26^th

9h - 12h

Session 3

Evaluation as a means to accountability of partners in development

This session will aim at exploring differences and similarities of demands and approaches of the accountability concept and will also address how bilateral and multilateral agencies can evaluate the NGOs they support.

9h - 10h30: Presentation of various approaches to accountability

• Chair: Mr Niels Dabelstein, Head of Department, Danida's Evaluation Secretariat
• Rapporteur: Mr Mahesh Patel, Regional advisor, Monitoring and Evaluation, UNICEF

• "Monitoring charitable organizations: criteria and assessment methods", Burkhard Wilke, Secretary General, International Committee on Fundraising Organizations (ICFO).
• "Evaluation a tool for accountability", Noria Mezlev, Humanitarian Accountability Project (HAP).
• "Development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS)", Michel Caraël, Chief Evaluation UNAIDS.
• "An example of the accountability approach by a DAC country government: France. Means to accountability", Communication by François Senemaud, Head of Service, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• "The missing dimension of development: impact of rich countries' policies on the poor" Robert Picciotto, Director, Global Policy Project.

Discussion

10h45 - 11h45 : Evaluation of NGOs - Feedback and monitoring

• Chair: Ms Nancy Mac Pherson, Head, Monitoring & Evaluation Initiative, IUCN
• Rapporteur: Ms Elisabeth Barsacq, Head of Office of Evaluation, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• "Australian NGOs and AusAID – partnerships for quality assurance and improving effectiveness",
  Part I: Peter Ellis, Director, Program Evaluation Section, AusAID
  Part II: Linda Kelly and Rhonda Chapman, Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA).
• "Dutch co-financing agencies and their common evaluation practices", Yvonne Es, Gemeenschappelijk Overleg Medefinanciering (GOM), Netherlands.

Discussion

12h - 13h : Reporting back on work conducted in subgroups of the Session 2

• Chair: Mr Hans Lundgren, Advisor, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD.

The rapporteurs of each sub-group will report back

13h - 14h30: Lunch

14h30 - 18h30: Session 4

Collaboration and joint work between the various evaluation communities

Participants will look at how evaluation capacities can be further enhanced. A discussion will be devoted to the comparative advantages and roles of the various evaluation constituencies, the possibilities to work together, and issues for the future.

14h30 - 16h15: Enhancing evaluation capacity

• Chair: Mr Hans-Rimbert Hemmer, Head of Evaluation Department, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau
• Rapporteur: Mr Graham Walter, Director Evaluation Division, Asian Development Bank.

• "Enhancing Evaluation Capacity, the example of a Norwegian Evaluation Network", Turi Hammer, Technical Advisor, the Evaluation Network of the Norwegian Development Network.
• "Facilitating Sustainable Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Development", Jean-Charles Rouge, PNUD Niger.
• "Donor support for Evaluation Capacity Development: from the perspective of a recipient country", Chen Zhaoying, Executive Director, National Center for Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE), China.
• "From enhancing evaluation capacities of NGOs to building an evaluation culture, the F3E French experience", Nathalie Schnuriger, President F3E and France Pays du Mékong.

Discussion

16h30 - 18h : Enhancing Collaboration and joint work

• Chair: Mr. Jean-Michel Severino, Chief Executive Officer, Agence Française de Développement
• Rapporteur: Mr Jim Rugh, Coordinator, CARE International

• "Lessons Learned from Experiences in Joint Evaluation" Oswaldo Feinstein, Director, Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank.
• "The establishment, strengthening and development of co-operation for evaluation between governmental and non-governmental German agencies", Brunhilde Vest, Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation (BMZ), Germany.
• "Collaboration for development evaluation: Ideas shaping a New Global Effort", Sulley Gariba, Chair, International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS).

Discussion

18h - 18h30 : Conclusion

• Mr Daniel Kamelgarn, Rapporteur general for the Workshop, sum up and concluding remarks.
• Mr Yves Saint-Geours, Deputy Director for International Co-operation and Development, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Ms Stéphane Pallez, Head of European and International Affairs Service, French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.

© Ministère de l’Économie, des Finances et de l’Industrie - 18 mars 2003, modifié le 8 avril 2003