'The goal of this report is not merely to update of our report Food Aid or Food Sovereignty?, but to call for action. We examine the most pressing issues in the food aid debate today and highlight the promise and need for a long-term and human rights-based approach to food security and the elimination of hunger.'

The World Bank Group’s support for health, nutrition, and population (HNP) has been sustained since 1997—totaling $17 billion in country-level support by the World Bank and $873 million in private health and pharmaceutical investments by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through mid-2008. This report evaluates the efficacy of the Bank Group’s direct support for HNP to developing countries since 1997 and draws lessons to help improve the effectiveness of this support.

The evalu more...

'This article challenges the terms on which donor agencies evaluate development success, drawing on a particular case to make its point. It describes the resettlement of 60,000 people squatting along the railway tracks in Mumbai, a process planned and carried out by a federation of the railway dwellers themselves, with support from the NGO SPARC (the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres).

The article argues that this effort, which met donor criteria for a successful project, wa more...

G20 leaders met for the second time in London on 2 April, as the global economic crisis began to crash across the borders of poor countries with ever-greater severity. Oxfam’s research shows rising human impacts in the shape of job losses, falling remittances to the families of migrant workers and a particularly severe impact on women workers in global supply chains. Based on the latest forecasts, published on the eve of the summit, Oxfam estimates that the crisis could push 100 million people more...

In 2007 a pilot study was carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in 6 countries to investigate the perceptions of a range of public and private sector stakeholders of the performance of seven selected multilateral donor organizations. The pilot study consisted of two main elements; a questionnaire-based survey and the dissemination and discussion of the findings.

This paper provides an overview of the findings from the study and presents key issues generated during discussion more...

'The aim of this report is to contribute to a discussion on how to strengthen the evaluation practice of Norwegian aid. Norwegian aid authorities, in recent policy documents, emphasise the need for improved methods for assessing impacts of development aid. The issue is also one of setting sound and realistic objectives for aid.

This report reviews recent Norwegian aid evaluations with an explicit mandate to study impact, and assesses how the evaluators establish causal effects in their analy more...

'Allocating aid through NGOs is traditionally seen as an attractive proposition for donors. This is predicated on the belief that NGOs are ‘closer’ to poor communities and so are able to make better use of funds. Furthermore commentators highlight that compared to official state aid the allocation of NGO funds are, in principle, less subject to political and commercial interests. However, in reality little is known about where NGO aid is spent, or how well-targeted it actually is.

The au more...

This Opinion argues that the dominance of experimental or quasi-experimental approaches to impact evaluaion (IE) could undermine learning and accountability.

The past five years have seen a proliferation of impact evaluations (IEs) by development agencies across the globe. This report was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) Evaluation Department to inform discussions on impact evaluation production and use within the Network of Networks Impact Evaluation Initiative (NONIE). It builds on an initial scoping study prepared for DFID which made recommendations on improving IE production and use, focusing on clust more...

'This report presents the assessment of an independent evaluation conducted by the Evaluation Office of UNDP of the adoption of results based management (RBM) as an approach. The main purpose of this evaluation is to examine the degree to which RBM has fostered a results culture within the organization, enhanced capacity to make better management decisions, and strengthened UNDP’s contribution to development results.'