This report is the result of a collective effort from the more than 60 institutions involved in the COVID-19 Global Evaluation Coalition and builds on the work of several dozen participants who provided guidance, substantive input and financial support for this work over the past four years.
Co‑ordination and management of the evaluation was led by the Evaluation Unit of the Reform and Partnerships for Development Impact (RPDI) Division of the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD), in its role as Secretariat for the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) and the COVID-19 Global Evaluation Coalition.
The Secretariat would like to thank all EvalNet members for their support and engagement in the preparation of the study and the work of the Coalition. This work would not have been possible without EvalNet members and observer organisations staff who provided written inputs and participated in individual interviews throughout the process and who are too numerous to list here.
The inception phase was managed by Jenna Smith-Kouassi with Ludhiya Johnson and Mayanka Vij, under the strategic guidance of Megan Kennedy-Chouane and Rahul Malhotra. An IOD Parc team of independent evaluators, led by Naomi Blight, managed the research phase including conducting interviews, document review, data analysis, and a first draft report. From IOD Parc, Callum Taylor, Liz Paton, and Sonia Pérez contributed to authoring the report with support from Nick York, Josh Fuchs and Jordan Williams. The analysis and report were finalised by Megan Kennedy-Chouane and Stefano Contratto, under the guidance of Robin Ogilvy, Pilar Garrido and Julia Nielson (OECD) with support from the evaluation Steering Group. Ole Winckler Andersen (DIIS) provided strategic advice and quality assurance throughout the process.
The study has benefitted from the contributions of many colleagues. The authors would particularly like to thank the following: Jenna Smith-Kouassi, Jinyi Ding and Mayanka Vij for their work in designing the study and research during the inception phase; Harsh Desai, Kerri Egger, Emily Bosch, Renwick Irvine, Yasmin Ahmed, Ida McDonnell, Francesca Colombo and Caroline Penn for substantive inputs; and Ola Kasneci and Nelson Torbay-Holguin for management and administrative support. In addition, the contributions of Sonia Cristina Mairos Baptista Ferreira on the analysis regarding disability, and Abhirup Bhunia for background research on the case studies, were also greatly appreciated. The authors are grateful for the support received from the OECD Directorate for Communications; Stephanie Coic for graphic design; Suzanne Parandian for editing; and Meral Gedik for preparing the report for publication.
Special thanks goes to the participants in the COVID-19 Global Evaluation Coalition, particularly the Core Group and Steering Group for their invaluable inputs and guidance throughout this process: Joanne Asquith, Eric Bloom, Sona Shrestha, Maya Vijayaraghavan (ADB); Camille Tchounikine, Claire Cogoluenhès, David Willecomme, Jean-Claude Pires (France); Karen Rot Munsterman, Rufael Fassil, Clement Banse, (AFDB/IDEV); Ndadilnasiya Endie Waziri (AFENET); Miché Ouedraogo (AFREA); Emmeline Kerkvliet, Susanna Morrison-Métois (ALNAP); Ivo Hooghe (Belgium); Amanda Desadeleer, David Heath, Bethany Pattingale (Canada); Jörg Faust, Marion Kramer, Magdalena Orth, Amelie Zu Eulenburg, Cornelia Römling, Wiebke Stein, Janis Schnell (DEVAL); Eva Jakobsen Broegaard (Denmark); Ole Winckler Andersen (DIIS); Konstantinos Berdos, Anna Lorenza Pigazzini (EU); Jean-Hervé Ramat (EU Commission); Veronique Salzelozach (EBRD); Carlos Tarazona (FAO); Antero Klemola, Ilona Mattila, Sanna Pulkkinen, Anu Saxen (Finland); Leslie Moreland (Gavi); Guy Thijs, Patricia Vidal Hurtado, Peter Wichmand and Naomi Asukai (ILO); Patrick Empey, Tom Hennessy, Frank Kirwan and Siobhán McGee (Ireland/DFA); Chisato Kondo (Japan); Thierry Lippert and Steve Engel (Luxembourg/MAE); Ida Kristine Lindkvist (Norad); Henrik Nordal (Norec); Malin Åhrné, Lena Johansson de Chateau, Sven Olander, and Jan Pettersson (Sweden); Cristoph Jakob, Romana Tedeschi (Switzerland/EDA); Johannes Schneider (Switzerland/SECO); Timothy Lubanga (Uganda); Isabelle Mercier, Richard Jones, Heather Bryant, Concepcion Cole, Alan Fox, Oscar Garcia, Oanh Nguyen and Tina Tordjmannebe (UNDP); Mona Fetouh, Jane Mwangi and Aude Mommeja (UNICEF); Angelina Bazugba (University of Juba); Winston J. Allen, Julie Chen, Shilpa Modi, Zhuzhi Moore, and Melisa Palisades (USAID); Robert McCough, Elil Renganathan, Anand Sivasankara Kurup and Riccardo Polastro (WHO); Jozef Leonardus Vaessen, Megan Alianne Cooke and Dugan Fraser (Global Evaluation Initiative); Jenny Gold, and Stephen Porter (World Bank).
The Secretariat is also grateful to the authors of the case studies, whose work provided crucial insights and evidence, including Jenna Smith-Kouassi, Cécilia Piemonte, Mayanka Vij, Jinyi Ding; Ludhiya Johnson and Megan Kennedy-Chouane (OECD); Colton Brydges and Bethany Pattingale (Global Affairs Canada); Eustace Uzor (IDEV/AfDB); Miyabi Babasaki, Echica van Kelle, Marit van Zomeren (IOB Netherlands); and Alasdair Shariff, Reneeta Mogan and Motea Cawanikawai (MFAT New Zealand).
Finally, the Secretariat thanks the many evaluation teams whose work contributed valuable evidence and insights to this report, including teams from the Center for International Knowledge on Development (CIKD), German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), NAZAN Consulting, the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación of Spain, and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) of South Africa, and acknowledges the thousands of hard-working people involved in and impacted by the programmes and projects assessed.