Publications & Documents

Relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability are widely used evaluation criteria, particularly in international development co-operation. They help to determine the merit or worth of various interventions, such as strategies, policies, programmes or projects. This guidance aims to help evaluators and others to better understand those criteria, and improve their use. It starts by describing what they are, and how they are meant to be used. Then the definitions and concepts underpinning each criterion are explained. Finally, examples provide the reader with concrete ideas for using them. The criteria were originally laid out in the early 2000s by the Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Although they have been widely used in evaluation, and beyond, this document is the first to comprehensively explore the concepts in detail, explain their intended use and offer practical guidance. It captures current thinking and best practice in evaluation, drawing on the inputs of internationally renowned evaluation experts from EvalNet and beyond.

This publication provides comprehensive data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resource flows to around 150 developing countries. The data show each country's receipts of official development assistance as well as other official and private funds from members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, multilateral agencies and other key providers. Key development indicators are given for reference.

Masculinities can either support or hinder women’s empowerment and greater gender equality. However, a lack of consistent and comparable data hinders efforts to understand and assess harmful, restrictive masculinities. This report identifies and describes ten norms of restrictive masculinities to be urgently addressed within the political, economic and private spheres. Alongside these norms the report highlights gender-equitable alternatives, which support women’s empowerment in practice. By mapping available and ideal indicators, the report provides a roadmap for efforts to measure changing norms of masculinities. In doing so, this report aims to support policies to transform masculinities by facilitating the creation of more and better data on masculine norms.

This paper explores the health financing challenges that countries face when they transition from low-income towards middle-income level and beyond. While domestic actors bear an increasing share of the national health expenditure in this process, the transition is not automatic nor necessarily smooth. The challenges that emerge in the process are recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, which risks diverting resources away from basic health services. The role of development actors during this stage can be critical in setting up sustainable systems of health financing in those countries. The paper starts with a review of the progress on the global health agenda by taking stock of past achievements and remaining challenges. Then, it explores how the health financing landscape transitions with the income level of a country, tracing how this can give rise to transition setbacks. Finally, the paper zooms in on the role of development finance and how it can be reshaped to better facilitate the transition process of countries.

This paper presents findings from research on how blended finance actors use and define different key concepts, and what implications these understandings have for evaluators. By increasing awareness of key terms and their use, the paper can contribute to facilitating the evaluation process, simplifying the communication of findings and results, and ease collaboration between different actors. It provides a useful framework for thinking about core concepts related to blended finance, differences in how these are used today, and the implications this has for evaluation methods and approaches. The work will be of interest to monitoring and evaluation departments, development finance institutions, international financial institutions, impact investors, private foundations and others interested in blended finance and its role in contributing to sustainable development. This paper is the first in a series of three working papers from the OECD/DAC EvalNet Working Group on Evaluating Blended Finance.

This paper clarifies the various definitions of additionality currently in use, and explores the relationship between additionality and key evaluation terms, such as impact and causality. It concludes that additionality should be assessed both ex ante and ex post, and that the presence of additionality will depend on institutional structures and on how different public and private interests are addressed. The paper further argues that the relevance of evaluation methods will depend not only on the applied financial and non-financial instruments but also on the types and dimensions of additionality to be evaluated. Several examples of different approaches to assessing additionality are analysed. The analysis provides a useful foundation for thinking through these issues, and will be of interest to both evaluation and blended finance actors. This paper is the second in a series of three working papers from the OECD/DAC EvalNet Working Group on Evaluating Blended Finance.

In a climate of heightened debt vulnerabilities, countries in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to fill the gap in infrastructure finance, which is paramount to achieving their sustainable development objectives. At the same time, the infrastructure financing landscape in the region has become increasingly diverse and challenging to navigate. This paper reviews the role of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in supporting countries to address mounting infrastructure needs while avoiding and mitigating potential debt crises. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the infrastructure needs in sub-Saharan Africa. The second part presents the changes in infrastructure financing, highlighting the dominant roles of domestic government and non-DAC lenders. The third part explains how infrastructure finance can be a potential driver for the debt build-up in the region; but that the quality of spending and the diversity of financing providers can be mitigating factors. The fourth part includes policy recommendations for DAC members.

The Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India is a regular publication on regional economic growth, development and regional integration in Emerging Asia. It focuses on the economic conditions of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. It also addresses relevant economic issues in China and India to fully reflect economic developments in the region. The Outlook comprises two main parts, each highlighting a particular dimension of recent economic developments in the region. The first part presents the regional economic monitor, depicting the economic outlook and macroeconomic challenges in the region. The second part consists of a special thematic chapter addressing a major issue facing the region. The 2021 edition of the Outlook addresses reallocation of resources to digitalisation in response to COVID-19, with special focuses on health, education and Industry 4.0. During the COVID-19 crisis, digitalisation has proved critical to ensuring the continuity of essential services. The use of e-commerce, digital health tools and on-line education all accelerated sharply during the pandemic in Emerging Asia. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, for the region to be able to get the full benefits of digitalisation.