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"Efficiency, economy, and equity are policy goals pursued by governments around the world, but analysts and evaluators have devoted more effort to measuring and evaluating the first two. In Speaking Justice to Power, contributors examine the concept of equity, the role it plays, and its application in policy evaluation. Here some of the most valuable thinkers in the area of policy studies address key questions: How should evaluators develop criteria for measuring equity as they analyze both program and policy implementation as well as their impacts? What distinctions among people should be taken into account when measuring and valuing impacts? What sorts of data should be used to analyze processes and impacts in different settings? How might such data be validated? The contributors employ grounded-theory thinking as they translate key ethical principles into their work and draw important lessons from their experiences. The work discusses equity in interventions addressing a variety of social and environmental problems. This volume continues the fine tradition of Transaction's Comparative Policy Evaluation series."--Provided by publisher.

The success (or failure) of aid programmes in developing countries is difficult to measure in terms of results. In fact international cooperation in development programmes seems to have reached few of its objectives. World recessions and wildly fluctuating commodity prices have hit many developing countries hard, while an ecological doomsday looms in the background. What went wrong with development cooperation through aid? What can be done better? What should the objectives of development programmes be? These questions imply that we need to study not only the impact of development projects but also initiation, implementation and evaluation processes for aid programmes. Aid organizations need to emphasize the efficiency of these processes if development programmes are to succeed. This book deals with structures and processes in aid organiztions. It shows how planning and evaluation work in practice in a comparative study of two organizations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). Several examples of industrial development projects in Tazania are used - some successful, some failures, with others somewhere in between. The aim is to learn from this experience - whether successful or not - and to delineate the potential for more effective development cooperation.

Efficiency, economy, and equity are policy goals pursued by governments around the world, but analysts and evaluators have devoted more effort to measuring and evaluating the first two. In Speaking Justice to Power, contributors examine the concept of equity, the role it plays, and its application in policy evaluation. Here some of the most valuable thinkers in the area of policy studies address key questions: How should evaluators develop criteria for measuring equity as they analyze both program and policy implementation as well as their impacts? What distinctions among people should be taken into account when measuring and valuing impacts? What sorts of data should be used to analyze processes and impacts in different settings? How might such data be validated? The contributors employ grounded-theory thinking as they translate key ethical principles into their work and draw important lessons from their experiences. The work discusses equity in interventions addressing a variety of social and environmental problems. This volume continues the fine tradition of Transaction's Comparative Policy Evaluation series.

This article explores the relationship between the social construction of risk, uncertainty and evaluation in the field of development cooperation. It explores the assumption that risk and uncertainty are unusually high in development cooperation. Perceptions of risk and uncertainty are cultural constructs. Several authors have identified perceptions of uncertainty as one of the most important dimensions in organizational cultures. An analysis of evaluation reports shows that risk and uncertainty often emerge as a consequence of operational factors. Evaluations indicate that uncertainty is higher in technological and environmental areas. Furthermore, there are a number of management techniques of handling risk and uncertainty that could be used on development projects. Why have evaluations not influenced the conception of risk and uncertainty more than they have? Three characteristics of the evaluation system are described and discussed. First, the evaluation system is found to send mixed signals in respect of risk and uncertainty. Second, the messages are weak. Evaluation reports are not sufficiently anchored in theory and practice to command respect and belief among a widespread constituency. Third, the signals from the evaluation system have become routine. The messages no longer alarm management and decision-makers. The article concludes by assessing the future of risk and uncertainty management, in particular how evaluation systems may become more relevant in this field.

In modern public administration it would be rare to find a sector where evaluation is not an essential ingredient in management. Evaluations feed evidence into the policy debate and may enhance the legitimacy of an organization. Policy makers and managers use evaluations for result-based management and to promote organizational learning. But the success of these efforts would presumably depend on the quality of evaluations?

Foreword / Patricia Rogers -- Introduction / Kim Forss and Ida Lindkvist -- Historians' debates on time and the nature of historical research / Charlotta Forss -- Counting the long-term in evaluation / Jens Andersson -- Contribution analysis and the long-term perspective : challenges and opportunities / John Mayne -- Using a wide lens to take a long view : how integrating systems thinking into evaluations can assist in taking a long-term perspective / Andrew Koleros -- Reforms of local governments in Denmark / Olaf Rieper -- Reform takes time, but politics won't wait : the scope for long-term evaluation in the education sector / Rolf Sandahl and Gustav Jakob Petersson -- Looking from a local place to take the long view in evaluation / Laura Tagle -- Complex development aid evaluations : the aid quality evaluation framework / Mark McGillivray and David Carpenter -- Why take a long view? : how formal and informal rules influence the choice of time perspectives in international development evaluations / Alison Pollard and Ida Lindkvist -- Long-term causal inference / Markus Palenberg -- From measuring impact to understanding change / Kim Forss -- Concluding remarks on evaluating the long-term : it works but can be made to work better! / Ida Lindkvist, Kim Forss & Mark McGillivray.

"Long Term Perspectives in Evaluation is the first book to advocate the virtues of a long-term perspective for policy evaluation as well as to show how evaluations can take a longer time perspective than they usually do. To get there, it is necessary to understand the decision-making context of evaluations and study the obstacles and the resistance towards long-term perspectives - as knowledge of that will lay the ground for more effective advocacy. The book is divided into three parts: Part One examines different aspects of methodology and methods. In Part Two, authors present case studies of long-term evaluations, examine their own experiences of such evaluations and discuss difficulties, challenges, and lessons learned. Cases discussed include: education sector reforms in Sweden, local governance reforms in Denmark, policy interventions in southern Italy and Brazil and Paris declaration principles of aid effectiveness such as Swedish aid to Tanzania, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka. Finally Part Three sees authors turns to a set of contextual issues and concluding remarks. Bringing together a rich collection of insights and a renowned group of experts, Long Term Perspectives in Evaluation: Increasing Relevance and Utility, constitutes a significant landmark in the field"--