Abstract 505 Credibility and Independence in Development Evaluation

In developing countries, evaluation is a recent but growing practice. It has emerged as a key tool for assessing and measuring outcomes and impacts in order to inform policy makers and donors about the effectiveness of projects, programs and policies. Evaluation is particularly crucial in Sub-Saharan Africa, because of the disappointing economic performances over the past decades of most countries and the mixed effects of aid. The paper critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of evaluation with respect to its main objectives, i.e. improving the effectiveness of development projects, programs and policies, producing and improving knowledge, and enhancing accountability of policy-makers and donor agencies. The paper contends that evaluations may exhibit limited effectiveness in many situations, because of different factors, such as the weak relevance of evaluation findings, weaknesses in implementing lessons learnt and recommendations when they are relevant, problematic methods used to gather evidence, and issues regarding the access to relevant information. It argues that the objectives of evaluation are constrained by political economy processes, some of them being embedded in ai