Evaluation of the Norwegian Aid Administration's Systems & Practices

The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the degree to which the current regulations and practices within the Norwegian Aid Administration ensure evaluabilty of grants, and support the robust measurement of results. To do this the evaluation will seek to test five hypotheses which relate to how Norad’s Evaluation Department (EVAL) operates and the functioning of the systems and procedures for managing Norwegian funded interventions.

1. Norad’s Evaluation Department (EVAL) is not putting sufficient emphasis on results measurement in the planning, commissioning and quality assurance of evaluations.
2. Evaluators commissioned by EVAL do not have the necessary competencies to effectively measure results and find/use evidence.
3. Internal policies, systems and procedures to ensure evaluability and results documentation in the grant management process are insufficient.
4. Staff do not receive the appropriate training and technical advice/support to effectively ensure evaluability and results documentation as part of the grant management process.
5. The policies, systems and procedures that are in place to ensure interventions are evaluable and robust results data is being collected are not being sufficiently implemented. 

The evaluation will result in an overview of the current regulations and practices that are in place to ensure evaluability, an analysis of where they are working and where there are blockages, and a series of evidence-based recommendations for how the Norwegian Aid Administration can improve its practices. 

APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The evaluation is grounded in a conceptual framework of organisational capacity: policies and systems; staff capacities; and organisational culture.

Policies and systems provide the institutional framework in which practice takes place, codify what is expected of staff and provide consistency in what and how activities are undertaken. Staff need to have the skills and knowledge to follow policies and put systems into practice. An enabling organisational culture supports the implementation of policies and systems. Culture can be a difficult concept to pin down, but two very tangible factors which shape it are leadership and incentives/sanctions.

The evaluation uses theories of change which uncovers causal pathway between what an organisation or project does, its activities, and what it hopes to achieve, and process evaluations with tools from a range of quantitative, qualitative and participatory techniques.