Publications

This "real life" introduction to evaluating progress on the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is based on emerging country experience from North and South, as well as wider past learning on sustainable development evaluation. It is the second edition of a guidebook first published in 2020, now containing additional country experiences of SDG evaluations as well as two new chapters, one on initiating an SDG evaluation and one on using the results of SDG evaluations to inform and influence policy and decision-making as a path towards sustainable change. Rather than a one-size-fits-all manual, this guide seeks to support evaluation commissioners, managers and professional evaluators to create tailored plans and approaches to SDG evaluation. It argues that a successful evaluation must be both built around existing national context and underpinned by the principles of the 2030 Agenda.

• Evaluación liderada por los países para el logro de la Agenda 2030 y de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (Spanish version) (PDF, 3.38 MB)
• Évaluation dirigée par les pays pour réaliser l’Agenda 2030 et les ODD: Un guide pour les commissaires et les gestionnaires d’évaluations (French version) (PDF, 3.38 MB)

• Ocampo, A; N.-M. Heinonen, D. Hoffmann and T. Rossmueller (2025). Country-led Evaluation to Achieve the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs: A Guide for Evaluation Commissioners, Managers and Evaluators. Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Development Evaluation Unit, Helsinki.

This guide introduces a practical tool called the Footprint Evaluation Typology. This tool helps evaluators and decision makers answer a critical question: How much is the project, program, or policy we are evaluating beneficial or harmful to the environment? As evaluators, one of our key responsibilities is to ensure our conclusions are not only valid but crystal clear, so that decision-makers can fully understand the severity of any actual or potential impacts on natural systems. That’s what allows them to manage the intervention to benefit both people and nature.

• Guía sobre la Tipología de Evaluación de la Huella Ecológica (PDF, 1.02 MB)

• Rowe, A., Davidson, E. J. & Chianca, T. K., with Warnholz, A. (2025), The Footprint Evaluation Typology Guide, EvalConnect (DEval), Footprint Evaluation Initiative.

This perspective article discusses whether energy access programs in rural Sub-Saharan Africa reach the poor in a way that most policy actors claim. We examine on- and off-grid electrification as well as improved cooking. We focus on whether the poor adopt the respective technology in typical access programs and on the triggered productive use potentials to examine both direct and indirect potential pro-poor effects. Backed by the most recent literature, we argue that energy access interventions do not naturally deliver on pro-poor targets. If these pro-poor claims are to be met, programs need to improve their targeting. Subsidizing end-user prices is required for all technologies. Energy-efficient biomass cookstoves are most promising in terms of their pro-poor effects. Especially for electrification, the absence of substantial productive electricity use, and the low uptake among the poor suggests that care must be taken to also reach those too impoverished to afford connection costs.

• Ankel-Peters, J., Bensch, G., Köngeter, A., Rauschenbach, M., Sievert, M. (2025): Are rural energy access programs pro-poor? Some are, many are not, in: Energy Research and Social Science, Vol. 120, No. 103871. Available at: doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103871.

Esta introducción a la evaluación del progreso de la Agenda 2030 y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) se basa en experiencias emergentes de países tanto del Norte como del Sur, así como en aprendizajes previos más amplios sobre la evaluación del desarrollo sostenible.

Se trata de la segunda edición de una guía publicada por primera vez en 2020, que ahora incorpora experiencias adicionales de países en la evaluación de los ODS, así como dos nuevos capítulos: uno sobre cómo iniciar una evaluación de los ODS y otro sobre cómo utilizar los resultados de dichas evaluaciones para informar e influir en las políticas y la toma de decisiones, como vía hacia un cambio sostenible.

Más que un manual de “talla única”, esta guía busca apoyar a quienes encargan, gestionan y realizan evaluaciones —incluidos comisionados, gerentes y evaluadores profesionales— en la elaboración de planes y enfoques adaptados a la evaluación de los ODS. Sostiene que una evaluación exitosa debe construirse tanto sobre el contexto nacional existente como sobre los principios de la Agenda 2030.

• Ocampo, A., Heinoen, N.-M., Hoffmann, D., Rossmüller, T. (2025): Evaluación liderada por los países para el logro de la Agenda 2030 y de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible: Una guía para responsables de comisionar, gestionar y ejecutar evaluaciones. Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Finlandia, Unidad de Evaluación del Desarrollo, Helsinki.

The present evaluation report examines the interventions of German bilateral development cooperation in protected areas. There are two overarching goals for BMZ’s support for protected areas: conserving global biodiversity and securing sustainable incomes for the local population. This support must therefore navigate tensions arising between protection and use interests and strive to align them. The current DEval evaluation rates the relevance, effectiveness, coherence, and sustainability of the German development cooperation and illustrates patterns, practices, and challenges for the criteria impact and efficiency. Based on data from nine representative partner countries, this evaluation report provides conclusions and recommendations for future support for protected areas.

• Executive Summary (PDF, 630 KB)  Accessible
• Online Annex (available only in German) (PDF, 3.29 MB)
• BMZ Response

• Sting, A., K. Lücking, M. Heinelt, C. Wicke and A. Dausendschön (2024), BMZ`s Support for Protected Areas. Evaluation Report, German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21870971.

Die vorliegende Evaluierung untersucht die Maßnahmen der deutschen bilateralen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) in Schutzgebieten. Das BMZ verfolgt bei der Schutzgebietsförderung zwei übergeordnete Ziele: den Erhalt der globalen Biodiversität und die Sicherung nachhaltiger Einkommen für die lokale Bevölkerung. Die Förderung bewegt sich daher in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen Schutz- und Nutzungsinteressen, die miteinander in Einklang gebracht werden sollen.

• Deutsche Zusammenfassung (PDF, 276 KB)
• Zusammenfassung in Leichter Sprache (PDF, 3.28 MB)
• Online-Anhang (PDF, 3.29 MB)
• Stellungnahme des BMZ

• Sting, A., K. Lücking, M. Heinelt, C. Wicke und A. Dausendschön (2024), Die Schutzgebietsförderung durch das BMZ, Deutsches Evaluierungsinstitut der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (DEval), Bonn, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21804638.