Evaluations should reflect true development cooperation goals

OECD donors increasingly justify development cooperation in terms of benefits to the donor or with respect to ‘win-win’ approaches where both donors and recipients benefit. While the promotion of national interests as a motive for development cooperation is not new, the more transparent interest-based rationale for cooperation marks a departure from the logic of the aid effectiveness agenda that emphasized partner country benefits.

This article argues that the shift in discourse on development cooperation motives and priorities implies a need for adjustment in how the effectiveness of development interventions is analyzed. In particular, evaluations should clarify what balance between donor and recipient objectives guides development programming and judge interventions in relation to the full slate of intended priorities rather than a subset of goals focusing on developing country benefits.

The authors illustrate the gap between policy frameworks and evaluation practice with examples from Denmark, the European Union, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.