New evaluation programme for 2022-2024
Reflect the variety of the Norwegian development cooperation
The evaluations outlined in the programme reflect the variety of the Norwegian development cooperation: climate, environment and food security, humanitarian aid, peace efforts, rights and inclusion, as well as multilateral support through the UN.
Important to be relevant
The development cooperation is facing major challenges thus it is important that the evaluation programme is relevant to contribute to learning and provide valuable input in decision-making processes aiming to strengthen Norwegian development cooperation.
Acting Director of evaluation, Siv J. Lillestøl, stresses the need to do more of what works in development cooperation and adjust measures that are not producing desired results. “Through our evaluation work, we have a particular responsibility to contribute to holding the Norwegian development aid administration accountable”, says Lillestøl.
Revised mandate for evaluating Norwegian development aid administration
“This year we are launching our evaluation programme later than previous years. The mandate for our evaluation work given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Climate and Environment, has been under review and we had to await the finalization of this review for our role and responsibilities to be clarified, including the responsibility to develop the evaluation programme,” Lillestøl explains.
“We are pleased that the revised instruction now is ready and that it confirms the independence of our evaluation work. The revised instructions states that the evaluation work should be relevant, of high quality and contribute to learning. These are important factors to ensure useful evaluations”, says Lillestøl, and adds that learning is a shared responsibility in the development aid administration.
“Our department can facilitate learning, for instance by ensuring that relevant evaluations are of high quality and by including the development aid administration in the evaluation process. The aid administration, however, is responsible for ensuring that evaluations are used in decision-making. This includes creating a learning culture within the aid administration”. Lillestøl also points out that the department is very content with the new evaluation programme and believes that the evaluations can provide valuable input in decision-making processes aiming to strengthen Norwegian development cooperation in a time which is continuously changing.