'Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Assessments by executing agencies of the effectiveness of assistance in capacity development are prominent among these.'

'The development finance system is becoming increasingly complex. New actors and instruments are being created with enormous speed and ingenuity. Yet the multilateral development banks still account for a large share of the public resources used for development finance. Of these, the World Bank and the three regional development banks (RDBs) – the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) – play the most important roles.'

El objetivo del estudio es desarrollar un análisis de las fortalezas y debilidades de los programas de transferencias condicionadas, o 'con corresponsabilidad' (PTC) en los tres países, con particular énfasis en su articulación con las políticas sociales sectoriales de educación, salud y nutrición. De esta manera, el documento busca contribuir a la discusión sobre políticas públicas de mediano y largo plazo para la reducción de la pobreza, la protección social y el fomento de la cohe more...

'Affected by the financial crisis, the world’s poorest countries are facing a development emergency. Cutbacks in foreign aid and devalued currencies are wiping out aid contributions that supply the world’s poor with basic necessities - food, education, and healthcare. Billions of aid dollars are sitting in Washington, ready for disbursement but hindered by bureaucracy. Homi Kharas outlines steps to accelerate the disbursement of this aid so that poor countries can receive the help they need. more...

This Policy Brief analyses 12 years worth of data on attacks on aid workers. The figures are examined by location, tactics, and the types of organisation and staff affected. The sharpest increases in attack rates have been suffered by international (expatriate) staff of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). UN aid agencies have seen attack rates rise mainly for their national staff members and local contractors, particularly truck drivers. Despite the recent upswing in international staff atta more...

'This report, prepared by the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WP-EFF) for the Third High-Level Forum held in Accra in September 2008, is intended to underpin with evidence-based material the Accra Agenda for Action. It covers the commitments under the five Partnership Principles related to ownership, harmonisation, alignment, results and mutual accountability, together with four subjects of critical relevance: sector perspectives, the role of civil society organisations, situations of fragil more...

'This preliminary survey is a desk study that compiles publicly available governance assessment documentation from international donor agencies and OECD member countries.

The documentation reveals that there is not yet a harmonised definition of governance in use across donors as envisaged in the 2005 Paris Declaration. Definitions variously comprise neutral understandings of governance, and value-oriented understandings, including good governance and democratic governance. The definitions of 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...

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...