Evaluating development assistance: A review of the literature
| Published date | 01 January 1988 |
| Date | 01 January 1988 |
| Author | Basil E. Cracknell |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230080107 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
8, 75-83 (1988)
Evaluating development assistance: a review
of
the literature
BASIL
E.
CRACKNELL
SUMMARY
Three phases of development
of
the subject of evaluation are identified. Up to 1979 it was
still in its infancy, with the main impetus coming from the USA (the World Bank and US
AID), and from one
or
two large UN organizations, although the OECD also did some
useful work in bringing evaluators together.
The second phase (1979-1984) saw rapid ‘take-off‘, with greatly increased resources going
into evaluation work, and a veritable ‘explosion’
of
interest worldwide. All the main donors
had by now set up evaluation units and were amassing enough material to begin to
‘synthesize’ the findings. The OECD provided a focus and a forum through its Expert Group
on Aid Evaluation.
The third phase, from 1984 onwards, finds the subject having ‘come
of
age’,
its
maturity
being marked by the publication
of
major works such as Cassen’s
Does
Aid
Work?.
The
emphasis now is switching from ex-post evaluation towards improving project design
through such techniques as the logical framework.
Evaluation is still a relatively new subject, and has been developed mainly from the
practical angle. If this review of the literature tends to focus particularly on the
pragmatic aspects
of
the subject, rather than on the theoretical, it is partly because
that is where this reviewer’s own experience has been, but partly because there has
been remarkably little written
of
a theoretical nature about the subject (in the
UK
if
not perhaps in the
USA).
Maybe the time is now ripe for this, following the
recent publication
of
such important reviews
of
experience to date as Cassen’s
(1986)
Does Aid
Work?
and Riddell’s (1987)
Foreign Aid Reconsidered.
The approach adopted in this review has been the chronological one, and it
traces the development
of
the subject in the literature from the 1960s onwards.
There are three main phases:
Phase One:
Phase Two:
Phase Three:
early developments (up to 1979)
explosion of interest (1979-1984)
coming of age (1984 to present)
Dr Basil E. Cracknell is one-time Head
of
the Evaluation Department, Overseas Development
Administration and currently
a
private evaluation consultant. He was Chairman
of
the OECD’s
Development Assistance Committee Expert Group
on
Aid Evaluation,
1983-1985.
0271-2075/88/010075-09$05.00
0
1988 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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