Impact Assessment for Development Agencies: Learning to Value Change - Softcover

Roche, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 085598418X ISBN 13: 9780855984182

Verlag: Practical Action Publishing - IPSUK, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

Considering the process of impact assessment, this book shows how and why it needs to be integrated into all stages of development programmes - from planning to evaluation. Its basic premise is that impact assessment should not refer to the immediate outputs of a project or programme but to any lasting or significant changes that it brought about. From a theoretical overview the book moves on to discuss the design of impact-assessment processes and a range of tools and methods before illustrating its use in development, in emergencies and in advocacy work. It ends by exploring ways in which different organizations have attempted to institutionalize impact-assessment processes and the challenges they have faced in doing so. In-depth case studies by partner organizations of Oxfam and Novib as well as by some Oxfam staff show how a variety of approaches to impact assessment - qualitative, quantitative and participatory - in a range of situations from large-scale integrated development programmes to projects involving only one community. These include impact studies undertaken by BRAC and PROSHIKA in Bangladesh, the evaluation of a post-conflict rehabilitation programme in El Salvador, a long-term study of the effectiveness of environmental projects in Zimbabwe and a retrospective review of a neighbourhood project in the UK.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Chris Roche is Director of the Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

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Impact Assessment for Development Agencies

Learning to Value Change

By Chris Roche

Oxfam Publishing

Copyright © 1999 Oxfam GB
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-85598-418-2

Contents

Acknowledgements, vi, 
1 Introduction, 1, 
2 Our overall approach to impact assessment, 18, 
3 Designing an impact assessment process, 37, 
4 Choosing tools and methods, 97, 
5 Impact assessment and emergencies, 164, 
6 Impact assessment and advocacy, 192, 
7 Impact assessment and organisations, 234, 
8 Conclusion, 265, 
Notes, 281, 
Appendices: Bibliography, 285, 
Contact addresses and material available from the case - study participants, 293, 
Participants of the impact assessment workshop November 1998, 298, 
List of acronyms, 300, 
Glossary, 301, 
Index, 305, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This book is the result of an action-research exercise jointly undertaken by a number of international and local non-government organisations (NGOs) based in four continents. The research was initiated by Oxfam from Great Britain and Novib from the Netherlands (hereafter referred to as Oxfam and Novib). The book is an attempt to share with others the lessons learned from that experience, as well as some of the challenges that arise from thinking about and practising impact assessment.

It is aimed particularly at practitioners, and evaluation specialists may find that I skim over some of the more theoretical issues. This is not because these are unimportant, but because our research showed that there is a need to demystify the subject. The aim is to make impact assessment accessible without being simplistic about it. The book also explores those elements of impact assessment which look beyond the project level at organisational processes. I hope therefore that those involved in the development of monitoring and evaluation systems at an organisational level will find this book helpful. However, it is essentially about the insights gained from the case studies, rather than an attempt to cover the abundant literature on the subject.

Impact assessment — making the case for development aid

Despite the statistics in recent UNDP Human Development Reports and in the World Bank's annual reports, which record a marked improvement in a number of indicators of human well-being, the scale of world poverty remains a scandal which shames us all. In many parts of the world inequality, insecurity, and conflict are growing at alarming rates. Bilateral development aid has had its critics for many years, but during the past decade we have also seen a growing number of critiques of NGOs (Smillie 1995, de Waal 1996, Sogge 1996). These critiques together describe a vicious circle which the NGO sector, particularly in the North, faces and which it has helped to create. This circle has five main elements (see Figure 1.1): there is increasing pressure on NGOs to demonstrate results and the impact of their work. Moreover, there is increased competition between NGOs, and a growing need for a high profile and press coverage in order to raise funds and to facilitate advocacy work. Poor institutional learning and weak accountability mechanisms are characteristic of many NGOs, which both leads to and is the result of the absence of professional norms and standards.

These elements combine to produce a growing gap between the rhetoric of agencies and the reality of what they achieve. They also fuel growing scepticism about the value of aid, and lessen trust between agencies — some argue that agreements and partnerships based on shared values have been replaced by bureaucratic trust based on plans, budgets, and accounts. Moreover, the elements of this vicious circle to perpetuate the tired old image of aid going from donor to 'victim', and a view of development as something that is done to other people, far away. This analysis, although based on little empirical evidence, holds a certain truth which NGOs ignore at their peril. One recent study of NGO impact which had a stronger empirical base concluded that the true impact of NGO development work remained unclear and that there was little consensus on which tools and methods were the most appropriate to find out. This study, undertaken by Riddell et al. (1997) for the OECD/DAC Expert Group on Evaluation, reviewed 60 reports covering 240 projects in 26 countries, and undertook 13 country case studies.

Both the critique outlined above (mainly of Northern-based NGOs) and the findings of this OECD study point to the inadequacy of most current attempts to promote institutional learning, impact assessment, and greater accountability in the NGO sector — accountability to those who NGOs seek to support, as well as to those who fund this work. In a climate of increased competition, individual organisations and the sector as a whole tend to exaggerate the case for support just as their opponents tend to exaggerate the case against. This can have two consequences, the dangers of which have been pointed out for some time (Cassen 1986, Riddell 1987). First, support for development aid depends on the public's belief in its effectiveness. The moral case for providing support rests upon its achieving its objectives. However, a reluctance to admit that the effectiveness of much of that is done is unpredictable and difficult to assess, makes not just NGOs, but also international co-operation programmes, vulnerable to public criticism and the odd polemic attack.

Second, those making the case for co-operation must not create the belief that aid flows constitute the sole, or even principal, means available to donors and governments of improving the welfare of people living in poverty. Often, changes in policy and practice, for example improved terms of trade or greater debt relief, may be more beneficial.

In the long term, the case for aid can only be sustained by more effective assessment and demonstration of its impact, by laying open the mistakes and uncertainties that are inherent in development work, and by an honest assessment of the comparative effectiveness of aid vis-à-vis changes in policy and practice. The research project that forms the basis of this book was designed to make a contribution to this process, as well as to the institutional learning of the agencies involved. A broad range of intermediary and grassroots organisations in nine countries participated alongside the Northern NGOs Oxfam and Novib. More specifically, we had the following aims:

• to develop greater clarity about the key elements of impact assessment;

• to explore how unequal levels of power and participation of the various stakeholders can affect an impact assessment process;

• to test a range of approaches to undertaking impact assessment;

• to look at the organisational context in which impact assessments take place.

These issues are discussed in more depth in Chapters 2 and 3, and I will return to them in the final chapter.

The structure of this book

The second half of this Introduction describes the case studies and the organisations involved in preparing them. The case studies form the foundation of the book, and I have attempted to retain their richness and diversity. Chapter 2 discusses Oxfam and Novib's overall approach to impact assessment. It explores issues relating to ethics and participation, and emphasises the importance of ensuring that gender and other aspects of difference are embedded into all processes of impact assessment. Chapter 2 also sets...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Practical Action Publishing - IPSUK
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 085598418X
• ISBN 13: 9780855984182
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 322
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland