Evaluation: Tried and Tested?

This working paper reviews a sample of SCF evaluation reports, examining the quality of project and programme evaluations conducted over the last five years with the aim of identifying areas where evaluation practice, and the measurement of impact in particular can be improved. The paper analyzes the strengths, weaknesses and constraints of past evaluation pratice in SCF, and puts these in the context of the monitoring and evaluation experience of other agencies. It reviews some of the innovative methodologies currently being piloted in SCF and other agencies, It makes recommendations for improved policy and practice in SCF, focusing on the conceptual and institutional approaches that need to be adopted to improve the evaluation process and product. Most significantly, it calls for redefinition of evaluation, which emphasizes a decentralized process of judgement, and strengthened project monitoring, as the keys to assessing impact.