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‘Value of aid to war-torn
countries ‘cannot easily
be assessed’
4. Why Results?
Assessment - measure whether achieved what was planned
Accountability - communicate the impact of development
assistance to Parliament, taxpayers, civil society, & recipients
Decision making - make evidence-based decisions by knowing
what works and what doesn’t
Global shift to accountability and decision-making driven by
demand for results and evidence of results
Longer-term shift towards Results-Based Management
5. Everyone’s at it…
“The Government has made a priority of
achieving better results from development
assistance
Ulla Tørnæs, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation
“The question we ask today is not whether our government is
too big or too small, but whether it works …those of us who
manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to
spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the
light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust
between a people and their government.”
6. …and without being hard-hearted, we will also be hard-
headed, and make sure our aid money is directed at
those things which are quantifiable and
measureable…
… so we really know we are getting results.
David Cameron, Lagos, 19th July 2011
7. • …Strengthen our efforts to achieve concrete and
sustainable results. This involves better managing for results,
monitoring, evaluating and communicating progress; as well as
scaling-up our support, strengthening national capacities and
leveraging diverse resources and initiatives in support of
development results.
• We will partner to implement a monitor progress, evaluate
impact, ensure sound, results-focused public sector
management, and highlight strategic issues for policy decisions
8. Results are…
A describable or measurable change in state that is derived
from a cause and effect relationship. Results are the same
as outcomes, and are further qualified as immediate,
intermediate, or ultimate.
•Sustained improvement in development outcomes at the
country level (e.g., families lifted out of poverty…).
•Results: The output, outcome or impact (intended or
unintended, positive and/or negative) of a development
intervention
9. The Key Achievements
section at the start of this
report sets out a number of
aggregate results based on
DFID’s standard indicator
set…
10. Opportunities/Threats
with the Results agenda
Opportunities Threats
Opportunity for evaluators to ‘step Indicator driven development:
up’ to the plate...now is our time doing what is easy to measure…
(in development)!
Focus on theory of change to Results agenda dominated by
ensure program results are possible ‘output’ measurement
Invest in developing innovative Focus only on positive results
ways to measure results (comms messages)
Needs very good results Failure to show results = failure of
measurement systems (M&e) evaluators rather than programmes
(or the fact that doing this is
hard!...)
11. The ‘Value for Money’ debate...
“ our commitment to reaching 0.7% of
national income on aid by 2013, and
enshrining this in law, imposes an even
greater duty on us, more than any other
Department in Whitehall, to get value for
money, to bear down on waste, and to ensure
that aid secures 100 pence of value for every
hard-earned British taxpayer's pound we
spend.
Andrew Mitchell, UK Secretary of State for
International Development. Oct 2010
13. What is Value for Money (VfM)?
Often VfM is
Resources / understood by
Service & Wider
Investment comparing unit costs Outcomes
Money Economic
People Inputs Outputs Social
Environment Real VfM is achieved Environmental
by comparing outcomes
with investment
14. Opportunities/Threats
with VFM agenda
Opportunities Threats
(Re) promote an evaluation agenda VFM agenda does not ‘learn’ from
(with new language!) the experience of the evaluation
sector (ignore counterfactual,
attribution etc)
Help clarify and operationalise Multiple interpretations of VFM
(e.g. technical v allocative VF)
Create innovative and useful tools Simple, high-level definitions, with
to help people use VFM as little guidance on measurement;
management tool; recognises
different ‘values’
X-Whitehall initiative Focus on the easy to measure
(economy & efficiency) - perverse
incentives
16. W is aid transparency important?
hy
ACCOUNTABILITY OWNERSHIP
EFFICIENCY FEEDBACK
RESULTS
PREDICTABILITY
CORRUPTION
EFFECTIVENESS
DIVERSION
Traceability
BUDGET PLANNING
COORDINATION
Demonstrating Results
19. International Aid Transparency
Initiative (IATI)
1. A standard for data on aid flows - NOT a new database
2. A common exchange format
3. Open data as a platform
4. Multi-stakeholder initiative
20. Background: Aid Information Today
Lots of people want data There is a lot of data out there
www.aidtransparency.net BUT... Data is not accessible to users
22. How does IATI work ?
IATI is a standard, not a database or a reporting system:
1) agreement on what will be published;
2) common definitions for publication;
3) a common, open, electronic data format;
4) a Framework for Implementation.
The approach:
• Aid providers publish their aid information (HQ or country office)
•Open Aid Register
• Link to the IATI Registry (an index that points users searching for aid
information to its location)
The underlying principle is publish once, use many times
www.aidtransparency.net
27. Conclusions and… more questions?
Individual agency data of little use; collaborative data better value
Exchange data to improve performance
Increase public support?
Set up a collaborative platform to tell the story of UKAid (in HIV),
visualising ‘results’ (focusing on financials now is probably a
tactical mistake)
28. Opportunities/Threats
with the Transparency agenda
Opportunities Threats
Evaluation findings can (finally) get the transparency can still be "gamed“ (just
exposure ‘we’ would want! as targets can...)
The focus on getting the data out is only Transparency can result in ‘damage’ to
the first part of the job...we still need development agenda (e.g. negative
experts to analyse and interpret the results used to justify political agendas)
data (that’s our job!)
Evaluations should be easier (since core Being ‘transparent’ requires significant
data should be available...) technical and financial resources.
Opportunity cost and who's funding this?
Chance to push transparency around
null/failed or uncompleted evaluations
agenda (e.g. IE registries of IE)
30. New opportunities
New skills needed (in all three areas)
New partnerships (data people for Transparency)
The dangers of over-emphasis on results (&
measurement) driving evaluation out of fashion [being
pushed back]
Need to be better communicators – all three agendas
converge around communicating to wider audiences
"Value for Money in International Development: Deconstructing Some Myths to Promote More Constructive Discussion" "This paper seeks to deconstruct some myths around "value for money" and promote a more constructive discussion about the relevance and limitations of the concept to development co-operation. It takes as its starting point the fact that few people disagree that we want development funds to be used as effectively as possible. So it is surprising that the concept of value for money in development has caused so many waves. This paper argues that once we untangle the confusion around what value for money really means it is clear that, as a concept, value for money is relevant to development co-operation. The challenge then is in applying this concept in a productive and pragmatic way, so that it can be a tool for development co-operation and not a straitjacket."
Yet another way to look at VFM – with quality (adapted from New Economics Foundation slide)…