URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Udenrigsudvalget 2015-16
URU Alm.del Bilag 62
Offentligt

EVALUATION POLICY FOR

DANISH DEVELOPMENT

COOPERATION

DRAFT

December 2015

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Foreword

This Policy lays out the purposes, principles and main procedures for the evaluation of Danish

development cooperation. At a time where there is increased interest in the effective use of

development funding, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with this policy want to provide

transparency around evaluation and evaluation processes as evaluations are an important

source for information about development results.

Evaluation of development cooperation will continue to serve two interrelated purposes:

Learning with a view to improving the quality and the results from development cooperation;

and accountability through reporting and communicating results to stakeholders in Denmark

and abroad.

The policy recognises that Danish development cooperation - knowledge as well as financial

assistance - is a contribution to change processes in developing countries aiming at reducing

poverty, promoting human rights, democracy, sustainable development, peace and stability.

Evaluations will assess the Danish contribution to changes in these wider goals and make

recommendations as to how this contribution can be strengthened.

Thus, evaluations play an important role in the programme cycle providing evidence for what

works and what does not work and under which circumstances – evidence that is useful in the

design and programming of future assistance. In the past years, the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs/Danida has strengthened its focus on results and evaluability in the planning and

implementation of development interventions. Design and preparation of programmes and

projects is now based on a theory of change for how the Danish intervention will lead to the

planned results and a results framework with indicators at the output, outcome/impact levels.

These initiatives are important for better evaluations and hence increased opportunities to

learn from past experiences.

The Policy aims at strengthening learning from evaluation results through inter alia the new

real-time evaluations, where an independent external evaluation process will provide feed-back

to the programme during implementation with a view to adapting the programme to achieve

better results. Furthermore, a systematic follow-up to recommendations has been ensured

through the establishment of an Evaluation Meeting headed by the State Secretary for

Development Policy.

The implementation of this policy, including coverage and quality of the evaluations, will be

reviewed in 2017.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

December 2015

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Introduction

Significant changes are taking place in international development cooperation, and evaluations

are being carried out in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment. This is reflected in

the widening of objectives that Denmark seeks to achieve and the fast changing contexts that

cooperation is working in. The broad range of objectives that Danish development cooperation

is expected to deliver on is reflected in the Law on Development from 2012 stating that the

objective of Denmark’s development cooperation is to combat poverty as well as promote

human rights, democracy, sustainable development, and peace and stability. In addition,

development cooperation should also serve Danish national interests in a peaceful, stable, and

just world. The widening of objectives is also reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is long recognised that development cooperation works in combination with other

development drivers, such as trade, the private sector, the governments’ own resources, and

that success of development cooperation also depends on the political economy and the

political processes in a given country. In addition, Denmark is increasing its development

cooperation in fragile situations where contexts are in a flux and a wide variety of instruments

are brought to use and where the development cooperation has to work in tandem with other

types of cooperation not least security measures. Danish development cooperation is delivered

through partnerships with governments - in accordance with national plans and through the

budget -, with Danish, local and international organisations, private sector operators, and with

multilateral organisations.

Evaluation plays a critical role in assessing and understanding the contribution of Danish

development cooperation to these wider objectives in this complex and ever changing

environment: By generating learning and evidence for what worked and what did not work and

why, in order to inform future cooperation and by assessing the results of the cooperation.

This document sets out the policy for evaluation of Denmark’s development cooperation. The

purpose is to:



provide clarity and transparency in the conduct of evaluations of cooperation with

developing countries

further a shared understanding among stakeholders of the priorities, usefulness and

value-added for development cooperation from these evaluations

outline principles and standards to promote quality and utility of evaluations.

The evaluation policy is complemented by the Danida Evaluation Guidelines that in details sets

out the procedures, processes, rules, and responsibilities of various parties involved in

evaluation of development cooperation.

1. Evaluation – definition and purpose

Evaluation is defined as the systematic and objective assessment of an on-going or completed

project, programme, strategy or policy, its design, implementation and results.

The term

systematic involves that the methods used in an evaluation should be replicable and standard-

driven, and the term objective refers to avoiding biases and conflicts of interest in the selection

of subjects to evaluate and in the evaluation process.

OECD/DAC: Quality Standards for Development Evaluation, OECD 2010

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Hence an evaluation should provide credible and useful conclusions, findings and

recommendations that can be used to 1) provide documentation for the results of the

intervention to provide accountability; 2) provide learning to inform new policies, programmes

etc., and in the case of real time evaluations inform on-going activities with a view to adapting

those to promote better results. An evaluation not only provides a systematic and objective

assessment, it also identifies what changes have taken place as a result of the intervention

and critically

why

these changes have occurred and how these changes may have impacted on

people. It investigates the theory behind the change, including the hypotheses and

assumptions, the context and causalities to understand

Box 1: Evaluation, monitoring,

better the results.

review and audit.

Evaluations facilitate evidence-based policy-making and

Evaluations supplement and work

design of new interventions not only for Denmark but

in conjunction with other

also for development partners.

instruments and management

tools to monitor and assess the

Evaluation of Danish development cooperation serves

cooperation. Evaluation,

two interrelated purposes:

monitoring, reviews and audits are



Learning with a view to improving the quality and

complementary but serve different

results of development cooperation through

purposes.

Evaluations

are

generation of knowledge about what works, and

independent and focus on

why.

outcomes and impacts and on



Accountability through reporting and

answering

why

change occurred.

communicating results from the development

Monitoring and reviews are

cooperation to stakeholders and the wider public

undertaken on behest of the

in Denmark and abroad, including beneficiaries.

programme, and

monitoring

most

often focus on activities and

All evaluations serve both purposes. Hence, they will

outputs,

what

has happened,

address accountability through an assessment of results

whereas

reviews

are a periodic

and impact of the investment as well as provide learning

assessment and tend to emphasise

that can be used to strengthen implementation and for

operational aspects and hence is

the improved design of new interventions.

closely linked to the monitoring

function; and

audits

look at the

integrity of the processes.

2. Key principles

Addressing both accountability and learning, evaluation of Danish development cooperation is

guided by the following core principles derived from the OECD/DAC quality standards for

evaluation:



Independence:

High quality evaluations depend on evidence that is objective and

credible. Development evaluation must be independent from programme design,

management and implementation. Evaluations should be carried out by knowledgeable

experts with high integrity that are independent of those responsible for the design,

planning and implementation of the intervention that is being evaluated and they

themselves must not have been involved with the subject of evaluation. The methods

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017



applied, the governance arrangement for ensuring the quality of the evaluation, and the

management of the evaluation should be designed to provide credible, reliable

evidence.

Transparency:

Evaluations, including the process, data, conclusions, and

recommendations as well as follow-up measures must be made publicly available for

sharing lessons more widely and for accountability purposes. Disclosure will also allow

review and test of the analysis and the methodologies used by other evaluators and

researchers.

Quality:

Evaluation designs, approaches and methodologies should reflect the best

available given the questions that needs answering. The purpose is to get the most

reliable and useful answers to the evaluation questions. Impartial expert reviewers

should be widely used to enhance evaluation quality. Denmark adheres to the

OECD/DAC international quality standards for evaluation.

Utility:

The evaluation, the evaluation process and its products must be designed and

implemented with the clear purpose of being useful for development practitioners. The

users will be involved in identification of evaluation topics, in the timing of the

evaluation to feed into new policies, strategies and interventions, in ensuring that the

right questions are asked, in the evaluation process itself and afterwards in the follow-

up of the recommendations. The Evaluation Department should safeguard the

independence and integrity of the evaluation in this process.

Ethics:

The rights and dignity of all involved in an evaluation must be respected. The

design of the evaluation must consider any ethical issues that may occur.

Confidentiality and anonymity of participants must be respected when sought for. There

must be no external pressures on the evaluators or the evaluation stakeholders

regarding the outcome of the evaluation. Evaluators must take account of differences in

culture, local behaviour, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender roles, disability,

ethnicity and social differences when designing evaluations and carrying out

evaluations.

Partnerships and capacity development:

To enhance ownership, utilisation and

capacity, partnerships are sought for with stakeholders in developing countries in

designing and carrying out evaluations. Coordination and cooperation with other

development partners will be considered to reduce transaction costs and ensure wider

learning.

Participation:

Where possible the evaluation and the evaluation process must be

designed to ensure that direct beneficiaries (women and men) of the development

intervention under evaluation are consulted and have opportunity to bring forward

views and suggestions for improvements.

All principles are important and will be pursued by the Evaluation Department in its work with

establishing the evaluation programme, designing evaluations, ensuring their quality, and in

the follow-up work. The organisational set-up for the Evaluation Department in the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs is designed to ensure independence from operations with the Head of the

Evaluation Department reporting directly to the Minister responsible for Development

Cooperation through the Secretary of State for Development Cooperation. An important role

for the Evaluation Department is to protect the evaluators for undue pressure from

stakeholders, including partners implementing Danish assistance and staff at the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs.

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

At the same time, it is also clear that there is an inherent dilemma between on the one hand

independence and on the other utility and usefulness that needs to be observed carefully with

a view to ensuring as much utility as possible without compromising independence. When

assessing independence, focus is on strong evidence and sound methodologies that can be

replicated as well as careful observation of the independence and the integrity of all involved in

the evaluations.

3. Getting to better evaluations

High quality evaluations that lead to learning and accountability depend on a number of things

related both to the evaluability of the intervention as well as relevant monitoring during

implementation, and the preparation of the evaluation itself.

The Evaluation Department will continue to be an active partner in developing the necessary

tools to promote evaluability of development interventions. The recent decision to strengthen

emphasis on results in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the decision to base

programming of new interventions on theories of change and related results frameworks, and

increased focus on monitoring through the implementation phase offer opportunities for better

evaluations.

Well prepared terms of reference for the evaluation, with clear evaluation questions developed

in close consultation with stakeholders, design of evaluation processes that involve key

stakeholders, and rigorous quality assurance are essential for production of evaluations of high

quality for accountability and usability.

The OECD/DAC evaluation criteria will continue to inform the conduct of evaluations in the data

collection and the analysis:

Relevance is the extent to which the objectives of the intervention are consistent with

the needs of those it intends to benefit and whether it is relevant to the strategic goals

that Denmark and the partner country/organisation are pursuing.



Effectiveness is the extent to which the planned results are being achieved.



Efficiency is the extent to which the resources used are appropriate in relation to the

results.



Sustainability is the actual or probable

Box 2: Transformational

continuation of benefits from an initiative after

change

is the process whereby

major development assistance has been

positive development results are

completed. Evaluations should also assess

achieved and sustained

over time

whether the changes brought about are

by institutionalizing policies,

transformational.

programmes and projects within



Impact is positive, and negative, direct or

national strategies.

indirect effects produced by an initiative

intended or unintended.

Results that contribute to

changing systems, norms and

Other criteria such as coherence and coordination will

values, power structures, and root

be added when found of specific interest to the subject

causes can also be

of evaluation e.g. evaluation of interventions in fragile

transformational.

contexts and humanitarian assistance.



URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Not all criteria may be equally relevant in all evaluations. When preparing evaluations, it will

be decided which criteria should be used, as well as the evaluation approach and methods

used to gather and analyse data.

The OECD/DAC evaluation criteria should not become a straitjacket within which evaluations

are designed, implemented and communicated. Rather, they should be understood as a tool in

the evaluation process to ensure that the evaluation cover issues of importance to answer the

essential questions of any evaluation: What worked, what did not work, and why, and then

what now?

4. Types and approaches of evaluations

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs basically operates with three types of evaluation products:



Evaluations

of policies, strategies, themes, and programmes. These ex-post

evaluations are often strategic in nature as they seek to address issues of broader

interest to policy makers and the public as to the results of development cooperation as

well as provide learning to inform new policies, strategies, and programmes. Only the

Evaluation Department can initiate evaluations.

Real-time evaluation (RTE):

A real-time evaluation is an independent, external

evaluation process that runs in parallel to a programme, while this is being

implemented, and regularly makes evaluation findings available for the on-going

implementation and course correction of the programme to promote that goals are

reached. RTEs have the potential to provide learning and adaptation as the programme

is being implemented. They differ from country programme monitoring by being

independent and by focusing on selected key outcomes and programme assumptions. A

RTE may also feed into a summative evaluation carried out of parts of the country

programme or the full country programme after the end of the programme cycle

following the normal procedures for evaluations. Real-time evaluations are being piloted

in connection with country programmes initially in 3 countries.

Evaluation studies

are studies of a particular issue where evidence is sought for.

Evaluation studies can be used for documenting results. They may also take the form of

meta evaluations/synthesis evaluations based on evaluation results produced by the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as other development partners and/or research.

Evaluation studies may be studies in their own right or form part of the preparation for

a larger evaluation.

Follow-up evaluations:

These evaluations are designed as immediate follow-up to

just finalised evaluations with the purpose of supporting efforts to enhance evaluability

of the next phase of the strategy or programme.



The Evaluation Department seeks to employ the best methodological approach to evaluation

that can answer most questions in the best-evidenced way given the context, the complexity

and the data available. The most commonly used approach is the theory-based approach. In

most cases, the theory based approach offers the best possible opportunity to deliver answers

to complex questions as the theory based approach recognises that the Danish engagement

only provides a contribution to the overall goals.

Through a theory-based approach contribution pathways between the activities funded and the

overall goals are assessed. It is an approach that is suitable for complex settings including

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

fragile environments where there are multiple related interventions and multiple assumptions

and lines of enquiry made and where it is difficult to collect large amounts of data. Theory-

based approaches use a variety of methods and both qualitative and quantitative data. To the

extent possible, and where data availability enables it, qualitative methods should be

supplemented by quantitative methods.

Box 3: The evaluation process, roles and responsibilities – general description

Selection of the subject of evaluation:

Through the process for the establishment of the

evaluation programme a subject is selected. Responsible: Evaluation Department (EVAL)

Terms of reference:

EVAL is responsible for the terms of reference which should be

developed in full consultation with the departments/embassies involved in the evaluation as

well as Technical Advisory Services. The terms of reference sets out the purpose, scope,

methodology for the evaluation as well as demands for the expertise sought from the

evaluation team.

Selection of evaluation team:

The evaluation team is selected through international

competitive bidding where due attention is paid to ensure the right competencies, integrity

and independence of the team selected. The Department for Contracts are responsible for the

bidding contracting with input from EVAL on the substance. The members of the team must

have the relevant expertise related to the subject of evaluation as well as evaluation

expertise. The evaluation team prepares and carries out the evaluation according to the

Terms of reference and is accountable to EVAL.

Governance of the Evaluation:

EVAL manages the evaluation process and ensures quality

control throughout the process. EVAL also protects the independence of the Evaluation. An

Evaluation reference group (ERG) is set up to advice the Evaluation Department on factual,

contextual and methodological issues related to the evaluation in question. The ERG will

include technical expertise and peer reviewers most often drawn from universities or think

tanks as well as representatives from relevant departments, embassies, partner organisations

and countries.

Management response and follow-up:

The Department/embassy responsible for the

evaluation subject is responsible for drafting a management response to the

recommendations of the evaluation. The management response is presented to the

programme committee for discussion among peers and to promote learning across the

organisation. The evaluation and management response is then brought to the attention of

senior management and the Minister responsible for Development Cooperation. After 1-2

years the responsible department is required to report to the Evaluation Meeting of senior

management on the follow-up measures and the usefulness of the evaluation.

Communication of the evaluation:

Evaluations and management responses are publicized

by EVAL. Communication will be targeted towards different audiences – users, stakeholders,

the public in Denmark and in the developing countries - using different forms of

communication (e.g. seminars) and modes of communication, including social media.

See Danida Evaluation Guidelines for more details.

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Similarly, the Evaluation Department will seek to apply the most suitable evaluation process

that can best lead to a high quality output of the evaluation. This is particularly important

when it comes to complex evaluations of policy issues where traditional evaluation approaches

and methodologies may not apply. Issues to consider are among other aspects: The scope of

the terms of reference, the requirements of the evaluators, the structuring of the reference

group and the involvement of partners and other stakeholders. For very complex non-standard

evaluations, it may be expected that a much closer involvement of stakeholders will be

warranted to get to a usable result.

Box 4: EVAL works in collaboration with a range of partners to carry out evaluations.

Ministries, departments, and embassies

demand evaluations and are the primary users of

the outcomes.

Consultancy companies

most often provide the teams carrying out evaluations selected among

consultants and experts on the subject matter from universities or think tanks.

Think tanks and Universities

are involved in evaluations either as contract holders or through

participation in evaluation teams or as members of reference groups.

Partner countries

are part of the process and at a minimum involved in the reference group

where relevant

Civil society and private sector

are often involved in implementing development cooperation,

and will where relevant be involved in evaluations as informants, stakeholders, and members of

reference groups.

Joint evaluations with other donors will be sought when deemed appropriate e.g. in connection

with evaluations of joint modalities such as budget support. Benefits in the form of low

transaction costs for the evaluator and the evaluated will have to be observed.

5. What should be evaluated?

Within a reasonable timeframe of 5-7 years all types of

bilateral development cooperation

should be evaluated – that is all modalities, and thematic areas. All countries will also be

covered either through a real-time evaluation or through evaluation of elements of a

programme or a full country cooperation evaluation. Development cooperation is here

understood in broad terms as all aspects of cooperation with developing countries and the

neighbourhood countries that involves development funding even if this is just a small part of

the intervention.

With regard to

multilateral cooperation,

Denmark works through governing boards of

multilateral organisations to enhance the organisations’ own evaluation functions. It is widely

recognized that the capacity to evaluate varies between organisations ranging from the Banks,

which are often lead organisations when it comes to developing and testing on a broader scale

new evaluation methodologies, to UN-organisations where reviews of evaluation functions

continue to call for improvements. Denmark is ready to support peer reviews of multilateral

evaluation functions with a view to supporting efforts to improve evaluations.

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Contributions through multilateral organisations may be evaluated as part of a broader

evaluation of a development theme or modality. Denmark will also seek to work in

collaboration with multilateral organisations and other donors on joint evaluation of issues of

common interest, which will as a by-product also enhance Danish insight into the evaluation

function of a given organisation.

Annually, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs establishes a two-year rolling evaluation programme

based on the following criteria:



Timing: To ensure usability, evaluations are timed to feed into up-coming strategy or

programming processes

Coverage: Over a 5-7 year period the aim is to cover most bilateral assistance –

including modalities, large aid programmes and countries.

Innovative approaches and new themes: To ensure fast learning from innovative

approaches, such programme items may be selected for evaluation or where evidence

gaps are identified. Studies may also be commissioned in areas where the role of

development cooperation is under clarification and definition.

The establishment of the two-year rolling evaluation programme is the responsibility of the

Evaluation Department in close consultation with the operational departments and embassies

– the primary users, to ensure their ownership for the outcomes of the evaluations produced.

The Evaluation Department is free to include any topic that it may deem relevant for

evaluation and to bring forward topics for evaluation that are suggested from any source.

The draft programme is consulted and if necessary prioritized in discussions with the senior

management and the Council for Development Policy as well as publicized on the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs home page for public hearing. Finally, the programme is approved by the

Minister responsible for development cooperation and forwarded for comments to the Foreign

Policy Committee of the Parliament. The programme may change during the year due to new

demands for evaluations or due to changes in priorities.

The main focus of the evaluation programme continues to be on ex-post evaluations of broader

Box 5: The human rights based approach and priority issues

Danish development cooperation has a human rights based approach implying that the principles

of non-discrimination, participation, transparency, and inclusion also apply to evaluations. These

principles are well in line with established principles and ethics for evaluations. Evaluations should

always take into account the views of target groups (women and men) and seek to engage those

directly in the evaluation where relevant and possible.

Evaluations should address issues related to the priority issues of gender equality and sustainable

green development. As the Sustainable Development Goals are translated into policy objectives of

Danish development cooperation, these will also be addressed in evaluations.

strategic issues relevant for answering broader policy questions and generate more learning

about what works and what does now work in development cooperation. Evaluations will also

continue to cover more specific areas typically as a response to a request where an evidence

gap has been identified. Real-time evaluation will initially be piloted in 3 countries. Their

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

usefulness and value-added will be assessed regularly also with a view to further developing

this evaluation instrument.

6. Strengthening utility and learning

Learning from past experiences and sharing of knowledge are important corporate values in

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Evaluations are an important part of the wider knowledge

management and learning in the organisation, and the Evaluation Department cooperates with

other parts of the Ministry to promote evidence based policy and planning. This is done

through participation in the Programme Committee and through participation in knowledge

management and sharing including networking across a range of topics. The Evaluation

Department will work closely with the Technical Advisory Services to promote learning and

sharing of knowledge and evidence across the organisation, including evidence produced by

other donors and in research.

A number of new initiatives have been taken to strengthen learning, including the introduction

of real-time evaluations. Learning in the context of a real-time evaluation will take place

continuously with a view to making changes to the programme during implementation to

better reach the planned results. Results from the real-time evaluation will through the

Evaluation Department be fed into the reviews of the Technical Advisory Services and into the

relevant Embassy which can then suggest changes to the programme based on the agreed

procedures for programme changes.

The responsible unit for the evaluation subject is responsible for the management response

and hence for the follow-up to the evaluation. Management responses are discussed in the

programme committee to promote institution wide learning from the evaluation. The follow-up

actions by the direct beneficiaries of the evaluation will be discussed after 1-2 years at the

Evaluation Meeting.

The decision to establish an Evaluation Meeting under the direction of the senior management

is expected to bring more attention to evaluation results and hence contribute to promoting

learning. Senior management will twice a year convene to discuss issues related to evaluation,

including the evaluation programme, general learnings from evaluations, and follow-up to

evaluations

The Evaluation Department will once a year produce a brief summary report on learning from

the past year’s evaluations for discussion in the External Grant Committee and the Council for

Development Policy. This summary will be made available to all staff dealing with preparation

and implementation of development cooperation.

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Evaluations will be timed to align with policy/strategy processes and programming cycles.

Evaluations will be designed and timed to ensure that evaluation results are fed directly into

the strategy and programming processes to ensure fast up-take and reaction to the findings,

conclusions and recommendations.

To support follow-up and learning, the Evaluation Department has the option to commission

follow-ups to evaluations. This is an instrument that is specifically designed to support follow-

up in areas where evaluability of the continued development engagement is a concern, and the

focus for the follow-up evaluation will be on ensuring evaluability of the next phase by helping

to define results and success.

The Evaluation Department sees itself as a part of a wider development community in

Denmark consisting of a diverse group of individuals and organisations, including ministries,

NGOs, universities, institutions, and companies engaged in or interested in development

cooperation. The Evaluation Department engages with this community to promote evaluation

evidence with a view to strengthen general knowledge of development cooperation and ensure

evidence based policies and activities. To this end open public meetings regarding evaluation

results and learning are conducted.

The Evaluation Department also works with the wider international development and

evaluation community to strengthen use of evidence in development cooperation. Denmark is

part of the OECD/DAC Evaluation Network and has strong cooperation with a string of

evaluation departments, and international evaluations networks and organisations across

countries. This cooperation plays an important role in a number of fields including making sure

that the Danish Evaluation Department is on top of new developments in the field including use

of new methodologies, organisational development, and sharing of experiences on learning,

usability and up-take. Cooperation with other evaluation departments and organisations are

also important to ensure that evidence produced has broader use and is shared widely.

7. Communication

Strong efforts will be made to communicate evaluation evidence and recommendations in a

way that it is easily accessible even to non-specialists. Communication aspects will be

considered as part of the preparation of the evaluation and during the implementation with a

view to ensuring that findings and conclusions can be communicated and that concrete

“stories” about the successes and failures of development cooperation are brought forward.

All final evaluation reports will be made available on

www.evaluering.dk

and as part of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Open Aid

www.openaid.dk

to ensure transparency and that

evidence and methodologies can be checked and possibly tested. In addition, targeted

products will be produced to ensure wider sharing of findings, conclusions and

recommendations with the development community in the relevant countries and interested

Box 6: Focus on learning in the evaluation process.

The evaluation department has over the past year had good experiences with ensuring

early up-take of evaluations findings and recommendation through good timing and design

of the evaluation process. As soon as the evaluation team is ready, a workshop is organized

where the initial findings and recommendations are discussed not only looking backwards,

but also discussion implications for the next programme using the theory of change

approach. This has been helpful in the design of new phases not least with regards to

stronger and more well developed theories of change and related results frameworks – and

hence strengthened evaluability.

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

people inside and outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Parliament, and the wider

public. More targeted products will be publicised on Danida’s Facebook page, and information

about evaluations available tweeted on relevant hash tags.

8. Support for strengthening of evaluation capacity in partner countries

Evaluation is also about learning and accountability in partner countries. The new development

agenda “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” stresses the

importance of country led review and evaluation processes, and Denmark will support capacity

development to this end in a number of ways:



Involve development partners in planning, implementation and use of concrete

evaluations.

Conduct joint evaluations with partners with partners in the lead.

Support dedicated training of partners from developing countries though support for

international training programmes.

Support development of evaluation methodologies and their use and ensure that

knowledge and evidence produced are made freely available in an easily accessible

manner.

What does success look like

This evaluation policy will be reviewed in the Evaluation Meeting in the autumn 2017 with a

view to ensuring that the policy is on its right course with regards to implementation. The

outcome of this review will be included in the annual report on learning from evaluation and

hence also presented to the Council for Development Policy.

In particular, the review will cover the following:



Clarity and transparency in the conduct of evaluations through an assessment of the

evaluation processes.

Shared understanding of the priorities, usefulness and value-added of evaluations.

Quality and utility of evaluations based on assessments of follow-up of

recommendations.

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Bilag 62: Udkast til Evaluation Policy for Development Co-operation og Evalueringsprogram 2016-2017

Annex 1

The evaluation process: The most important steps

EVAL drafts ToR with input from stakeholder experts

Evaluator selected through international competitive bidding

The evaluators are working based on ToR and being accountable to EVAL:

EVAL responsible for

quality assurance

Evaluation Reference

Group is established

Stakeholder

Workshops

Final Evaluation Report delivered to EVAL

Responsible Department draft Management Response

Management Response discussed in Programme Committee

Evaluation Report and Management Response presented for Minister responsible for Development

Cooperation

Evaluation Report and Management Response published

1 -2 year follow-up on management response discussed in the Evaluation Meeting

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Real Time Evaluation of Country Programmes

Real Time Evaluation Process

Decision on a Real Time Evaluation of a

country programme

Country programme proces

Design Country Programme, ToC and

Resultsframework

EVAL drafts ToR for RTE with input from

stakeholders

Appraisal

Evaluator selected through international

competitive bidding

Real Time Evaluation begins

Final Country Programme Adopted

Implementation begins

The evaluators are working based on ToR

and being accountable to EVAL

EVAL

responsible

for quality

assurance

Evaluation

Reference

Group is

established

Stakeholder

workshops

Inception Phase

Implementation Phase

Annual Stakeholder Forum

Assessment of ToC and Assumptions,

Resultsframework and processes.

If needed, recommendations for course

correction to reach development goals

through normal procedure

Feedback through

EVAL to Embassy

Mid Term Review (TSA)

Reporting

Inputs from RTE

Possible Summative Evaluation

Assessment of Real Time Evaluation