Working with assumptions in international development program evaluation
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X211033717 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Scott Bayley |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2021, Vol. 21(4) 231–233
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X211033717
journals.sagepub.com/home/evj
Working with assumptions in
international development
program evaluation
Apollo M Nkwake, Working with assumptions in international development program evaluation.
Springer, 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-33006-4.231233
Reviewed by: Scott Bayley, Scott Bayley Evaluation Services, Barton, Australia
All international development policies and programs are fuelled by a complex network
of implicit ideas. Stakeholders may hold assumptions about program purposes, theories
of change, outcomes, and the value of program evaluation—which may or may not be
shared by the evaluators. A major barrier to viable evaluations is that development
programs are often based on assumptions that are not well articulated. This lack of
clarity masks critical risks to program success and also makes it challenging to evaluate
such programs.
Most of the evaluation methods that have attempted to address this dilemma have
been popularised as ‘theory driven’approaches. These approaches elaborate the se-
quence of changes/mini steps that lead to the long-term goal of interest and the
connections between program activities and outcomes that occur at each step of the
way. Unfortunately, they do not do enough to clarify how program managers or
evaluators should deal with tacit assumptions.
This book seeks to address this gap by discussing the crucial role that assumptions
play in conceptualising, implementing, and evaluating development programs. It aims
to offers practical ways for stakeholders and evaluators to 1) examine their assumptions
about program theory and environmental conditions and 2) develop and carry out
effective program monitoring and evaluation given those assumptions. Unfortunately,
in the opinion of this reviewer, this book fails to deliver on its intended purpose.
Description
The book’s 212 pages are organised into 13 chapters and 4 parts.
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