Evaluation - "Top Down" Evaluation

Introduction
Terms of Reference
New Interests
Engaging Stakeholders


Introduction

‘Top-down’ evaluation describes evaluations driven by members of the elite community, that is, funders. In fact, conflict management projects and programs are most often evaluated because funders want them to be. Funders are generally keen to hold projects and programs accountable for their spending. They may therefore use their own resources to evaluate the projects and programs they fund. More often however, funders hire an external evaluator, or request an intermediary organization, like an NGO, carry out the evaluation.

Terms of Reference

No matter who carries out the evaluation, it is normally the funder who sets the evaluation’s terms of reference. DANIDA’s (Danish International Development Assistance) Evaluation Guidelines describe an evaluation’s terms of reference as specifying:

  1. The issues on which the evaluation should focus.
  2. The composition of the evaluation team.
  3. The timing of the evaluation.
  4. The evaluation’s objectives.
  5. The scope of the work.

By setting these terms of reference, the funder can ensure the evaluation serves their interests. Most often, these interests are ensuring the accountability, cost-effectiveness and efficacy of funded projects and programs. Evaluations therefore frequently inform funders’ decisions about how to allocate their funding.

New Interests

However, the recent trend towards transparency and accountability in the fields of development, aid and humanitarian assistance has pushed funders to evaluate projects and programs for different reasons. For example, some Donor Institutions now evaluate interventions to demonstrate that their work (through the projects and programs they fund) ‘does no harm’ in the conflict context. That is, that conflict management projects and programs do not worsen the conflicts they aim to ameliorate.

Funders are also under increasing pressure to show that they are meeting their own goals and targets as laid out in their strategic plans. Evaluation is an important means to this end. Donor Institutions like the W. K. Kellog Foundation therefore now promote the evaluation of the projects and programs they fund as a way to help them learn, ‘how to do our work better.’ Further, as Church and Shouldice argue in their recent study of conflict resolution evaluation, evaluation ultimately delivers a bigger bang for the funder’s buck by improving the funder’s own practice and analysis.

Donor Institution Evaluation in Practice

DANIDA (Danish International Development Assistance) evaluations serve two purposes:

  1. Accumulation of Experience
    Evaluations shall contribute to the improvement of aid by the collation, analysis and dissemination of experience from current and completed aid activities. Evaluations shall seek the causes and explanations as to why activities succeed or fail to succeed and produce information that helps make future activities more relevant and effective.
  2. Documentation
    Evaluations shall provide political decision makers and the general public with professional documentation as to the use and results of aid resources and also contribute to a better under-standing of development aid, its potential and limitations as an instrument for economic and social change.

(Adapted from DANIDA's Evaluation Guidelines)

Engaging Stakeholders

Despite the recent proliferation of funders’ interests in evaluation, middle-range and grass roots communities continue to perceive ‘top-down’ evaluation to be an instrument of control. It is therefore difficult to engage these communities honestly in the process of a ‘top-down’ evaluation. For example, if middle-range and grass roots actors think that the findings of an evaluation will affect the financial future of their project or program, they may withhold information from an evaluator. These actors may feel that by withholding information, they will ensure that the findings of the evaluation are positive and thereby secure the financial future of their project or program.