The new environment for development evaluation

The millennium development goals have created new challenges for development
evaluation. The main unit of account has shifted to the country level. Evaluation ownership must
move from donor agencies to developing countries. The recognition that rich countries have
development obligations is opening up evaluation frontiers beyond aid. A transformation of
evaluation priorities is needed: (a) Evaluation frameworks should give more weight to alignment
with the millennium development goals, (b) impact measures of development programs should
be aggregated to the country and global levels, (c) accountability should be enhanced by sharper
attributions of results according to the distinctive accountabilities of development partners,
(d) attribution of results to aid should be examined using methods appropriate to the situation,
and (e) the asymmetry of the development evaluation agenda should be remedied by a sharper
focus on the impact of rich countries’ policies on global poverty reduction.