Evaluating global aid projects ex-post closure: Evaluability, and how-to via Sustainability Evaluation training materials:
How do we evaluate projects ex-post, and are all projects evaluable after donors leave? How do we learn from project documents to ascertain likely markers of sustainability (hint: see materials for Theory of Sustainability and Sustainability Ratings) that we can verify? How do we design projects to make sustainability more likely (hint: implement pre-exit the drivers in the second image, below)? How to consider evaluating resilience to climate change (hint: evaluate resilience characteristics)?
In 2017, Valuing Voices created an evaluability checklist for Michael Scriven’s foundation, as many projects are not implemented long enough, or too long ago, or have such weak monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data as to be very difficult to evaluate: https://valuingvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Valuing-Voices-Checklists.pdf. We have used it in multiple evaluations since. Now in 2023, we are sharing work we’ve done with the Adaptation Fund, where we have applied that evaluability process via a vetting evaluability process that eliminated over 90% of all projects done in their early years, which alone is sobering but typical in our field, and is leading to changes in how they monitor, retain information and learn. See page 24 – officially pg 15) of this Phase 1 report: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-09-12-AF-TERG_Ex-Post-Phase-1-Final-Report_Final.pd
Ex-post evaluability at the Adaptation Fund
The Adaptation Fund has also committed to doing two ex-post sustainability and resilience evaluations per year. and learn from remote ex-posts as well. The first two ex-post evaluations are found here: Samoa/ UNDP on resilient infrastructure (https://www.adaptation-fund.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Ex-Post-Evaluation-Samoa-final-ed-2.pdf) and Ecuador/ WFP on food security (https://www.adaptation-fund.org/document/ex-post-evaluation-summary-ecuador/). So many lessons from assumptions made to future design…
Not only are we evaluating projects ex-post, but we are also creating processes for others to follow, including this new Sustainability Framework. The left three columns project the likelihood of sustainability, which the right three columns verify. It includes the Valuing Voices ’emerging outcomes’ from local efforts to sustain results after donors leave. SO exciting:
Ex-post Sustainability Framework
Also, just today, we published our training materials which we are using in ex-posts 3 and 4 in Argentina (Ministry of the Environment and the World Bank); https://www.adaptation-fund.org/document/training-material-for-ex-post-pilots/. They include videos for those who like to listen and watch us, as well as Powerpoint slides/ PDFs and Excels of our training materials (including suggested methods) for those who like to read…
Take a look, use, and tell us what you think and what you are learning! Thanks, Jindra Cekan (Sustainability) and Meg Spearman (Resilience) and the Adaptation Fund team!
31 years of Valuing Voices of national participants, project partners, donors and technical staff. Let’s have sustained impact!
