Affiliation:
1. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
‘Evidence-based’ development policy has caused impact evaluations to prioritise accountability over addressing processual learning questions. Moreover, evaluation scholarship is dominated by surveys, whereas qualitative research remains scant. This article traces one particular evaluation, within the independent Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It asks, ‘How do evaluators and policymakers interact and what adjustments follow from the illustrative evaluation?’ It used participant observations, documents and interviews with policymakers and evaluators. An in-depth thematic analysis resulted in a typology of evaluator roles: (1) knowledge broker, (2) facilitator, (3) archive, (4) truth-revealing and (5) critical voice. Finally, policymakers and managers adjusted in three ways: symbolic, instrumental and empowerment. These results imply that if evaluators deliberate a suitable role, they (1) increase their partial understandings of the programme under scrutiny and the involved stakeholders, and (2) enhance the potential of synergies in collective learning to emerge in an evaluation team and the broader institution.
Subject
Sociology and Political Science,Development
Reference37 articles.
1. Unbundling evaluation use
2. Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments
3. Banerjee A, Duflo E (2011) Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: PublicAffairs, 7–9.
4. How do policy evaluators understand complexity?
5. Bjørkdahl K, McNeill D, Reinersten H (2017) Confronting the contradiction – an exploration into the dual purpose of accountability and learning in aid evaluation. Report for the Swedish Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA). Available at: https://eba.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Webbversion-FINAL-blanksida.pdf (accessed 21 March 2022).