Evaluation, not development evaluation

Abstract

It is not about your project, it is about my country.

Ba Tall, 2009

This short comment, less than a dozen words, speaks volumes about evaluation in the development sphere. It is a damning critique of much of the evaluation that is carried out in development, but it also highlights what is critical—national development.

Much has been said already in this forum (and elsewhere in the literature) about the changing face of development and the changing face of the aid industry, so I will not belabor these points here. What I want to focus on here is the effect this could have on evaluation and what might we do to move evaluation into the most useful space possible.