Advancement of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Steering

Research and advisory on developing an integrated system for monitoring, evaluation, and steering in official bilateral development cooperation.

How can monitoring and evaluation be improved to provide a basis for informed decision-making by German development cooperation stakeholders? What can we learn from scientific literature and from other international organisations? And what potential for innovation do geo-referenced data, changing data environments in partner countries and new ways of analysing data using artificial intelligence offer for monitoring and evaluation?

The objective of the research and advisory project is to provide empirically based answers to these questions and thus contribute to a more integrated system for monitoring, evaluation and steering in official bilateral development cooperation. In an integrated system, monitoring and evaluation provide information on the extent to which objectives have been achieved at project, programme and country level and enable adjustments to be made to increase the effectiveness of German development cooperation. However, previous DEval evaluations and reports (e.g. Amine et al., 2021; Amine et al., 2022; Hartmann et al., 2019; Krämer et al., 2021; Noltze et al., 2018) and other studies, for example by the German Federal Court of Auditors and the OECD-DAC Peer Review for Germany have found that monitoring, evaluation, and steering are not yet adequately interlinked to meet this aspiration.

Existing Challenges in the Current System of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Steering

Monitoring systems at the level of country or regional strategies and at the programme level are inadequate; evaluation frameworks are currently being developed.
Monitoring and evaluation are not yet adequately linked.
Data collected by partner countries is rarely used for monitoring and evaluation.
Theories of change that underpin monitoring are sometimes incomplete or unclear.
An integrated data management system across all levels is not in place.

Possible Solutions for more Result-oriented Steering

To address the existing challenges and to contribute to an integrated system for monitoring, evaluation and steering, the project team reviews scientific findings as well as experiences of other organisations and positive examples from German development cooperation. Particular attention will be paid to the potential of changing data environments. The improved availability of data in partner countries, for example, may render the use of partner systems for monitoring and evaluation an increasingly realistic option. Geo-referenced data could be incorporated into monitoring systems more widely and may enable small-scale impact evaluations. At the same time, using artificial intelligence could make information from monitoring and evaluation more accessible.

Team

Contact

Dr Kathrin Wolf

Senior Evaluator - Team Leader

Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-949

E-mail: kathrin.wolf@DEval.org

Dr Martin Bruder

Head of Department: Civil Society, Human Rights

Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-970

E-mail: martin.bruder@DEval.org