The OECD reviews the evaluation criteria for cooperation

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has made a call for specialists to discuss the process of reviewing the evaluation criteria of the Development Aid Committee (DAC) in which the EVALUATION project has been a part of it.

Since 1961, the OECD has been promoting policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people through a forum that brings 36 countries together. Its development assistance committee was set up to establish recommendations for sound assessment and measurement tools aimed at achieving a qualitative evaluation of cooperation actions. In 1991, they agreed on the principles of evaluating development aid based on five concepts: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. These principles have helped to systematize the evaluation of development and make it objective.

The evaluation criteria are being reviewed by the CAD evaluation network working group (EVALNET) to adapt them to the guidelines of the 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development objectives (SDG). EVALNET has already formulated two drafts, and it is estimated that the final document will be approved by the end of 2019.

Spain is one of the member countries of the CAD, so it must adopt any orientations, recommendations and guidelines that the CAD establishes. The new document will help achieve the SDGs worldwide by improving the evaluation of the actions being taken.

EVALNET has given Spanish cooperation the opportunity to comment on the draft. The EVALÚA project is one of those selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. EVALÚA and other Spanish evaluation community stakeholders have participated in the latest meeting of evaluating specialists, a participatory space that made it possible to collect all of their opinions. Participants included public cooperation agencies, NGOs, universities and consulting firms, among other professionals.

The Evalúa project is part of the Adelante programme and is funded by the European Union and coordinated by FIIAPP. Its main objective is the institutionalization of a culture of evaluation in the Latin American región.