Evaluation is a key tool in improving the quality and effectiveness of development co-operation. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party in Aid Evaluation is the only international forum where bilateral and multilateral evaluation ...

Evaluation is a key tool in improving the quality and effectiveness of development co-operation. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party in Aid Evaluation is the only international forum where bilateral and multilateral evaluation experts meet regularly. Its Members meet to improve evaluation practice and to learn lessons from development co-operation activities and experiences. A series "Evaluation and Aid Effectiveness" was launched to share selected pieces of work with a broader public. This study acknowledges the considerable progress made in terms of the growing mainstreaming of environmental issues and recognises the need for additional efforts in the context of widespread institutional capacity development. As such, this report shall be considered as a complement to the Committee's earlier publications and guidelines on CDE. These should guide both programme-level and specific project-level CDE assessments and serve as a source of general information for policy-makers as well as practitioners in donor agencies and developing countries. The print version of the above report is available free of charge from the Development Co-operation Directorate; please send an email to [email protected] to get a copy.

African countries need to improve the performance of their public sectors if they are going to achieve their goals of growth, poverty reduction, and the provision of better services for their citizens. Between 1995 and 2004, the Bank provided some $9 billion in lending and close to $900 million in grants and administrative budget to support public sector capacity building in Africa. This evaluation assesses Bank support for public sector capacity building in Africa over these past 10 years. It is based on six country studies, assessments of country strategies and operations across the Region, and review of the work of the World Bank Institute, the Institutional Development Fund, and the Bank-supported African Capacity Building Foundation.

This book is a resource for implementing the recommendations on civil society and aid effectiveness emerging from the Accra High Level Forum and its preparatory process.

Assessing Aid determines that the effectiveness of aid is not decided by the amount received but rather the institutional and policy environment into which it is accepted. It examines how development assistance can be more effective at reducing global poverty and gives five mainrecommendations for making aid more effective: targeting financial aid to poor countries with good policies and strong economic management; providing policy-based aid to demonstrated reformers; using simpler instruments to transfer resources to countries with sound management; focusing projects oncreating and transmitting knowledge and capacity; and rethinking the internal incentives of aid agencies.