Evaluering
Use of Evaluations in the Norwegian Development Cooperation System
This evaluation report was commissioned by the Norad Evaluation Departmentin order to respond to the need for understanding whether and how theevaluations it conducts are used, and how the systems for learning from andusing those evaluations can be improved.Evaluation use is important because, unlike basic research, evaluation isintended to provide accountability for achieving results from the use of funding,and learning from experience in ways that can be put to practical use. Theextensive literature on evaluation use suggests that evaluation can affect policyand operational decisions. Much attention focuses on the explicit use ofevaluation through the implementation of recommendations. While this is animportant kind of evaluation use, this study highlights a number of ways in whichevaluations can have more indirect influence on actions, perceptions, and evenhow specific issues are conceptualized.In conducting this evaluation the team used a mixed-methods approach. Thisentailed document reviews, interviews with key informants, case studies of fourspecific evaluations, detailed review of the content and structure of relatedevaluation reports, a citation search for Norad evaluations, and a comparativeorganizational analysis of evaluation units in Norad peer organizations.