Mokoro : Evaluations
Using aid effectively depends on rigorous evaluation. Parliaments and taxpayers in donor countries are right to insist that the use of aid is properly monitored and evaluated, and value for money is achieved. Rigorous impact evaluations, when feasible, are ideal. But randomised control trials, when they are feasible (which is not often), are only a part of the armoury. Aid agencies often have to make rapid choices on limited information, in countries where data are weak. Complex causation and context- and time-specificity in causal relationships often escape so-called rigorous methods, and case studies have been shown to have enormous complementary value. Evaluators need to use mixed methods approaches to maximise lesson-learning that can feed into decisions about the allocation, design and delivery of aid.
Mokoro experience
Mokoro has been involved in a series of major aid evaluations, and applies mixed-methods approaches also to smaller-scale evaluations and reviews. We recognise the importance of decisions that are firmly evidence-based, but we also recognise that aid agencies and governments have to make timely decisions based on systematic assessment of the evidence that is available. We seek to draw quantitative and qualitative evidence from a variety of sources, and to be clear about the strengths and limitations of our findings and conclusions.
We have led formal global evaluations, including, the Joint Evaluation of General Budget Support and the evaluation of the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, and also less formal multi-country case studies and reviews, such as the Aid on Budget study and the study of Sector Budget Support in Practice. We also undertake evaluations of major interventions (such as the evaluation of the World Food Programme’s school feeding policy and the FAO’s evaluation of its role and work in tenure of and access to land and other natural resources) and evaluations of individual country programme reviews and evaluations (such as Danida Mozambique and Uganda evaluations).
In addition to its work at the national and global level, in Ethiopia Mokoro also works at the local level to assess the complex ways in which a government’s development interventions (supported by aid and not) affect long-term site-specific and path-dependent trajectories of much smaller entities such as rural villages and the different types of groups and households.
Our clients have included donor consortia for joint evaluations, and a range of bilateral and multilateral agencies, including AfDB, DFID, Danida, FAO, Irish Aid, the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA), World Bank, and WFP.
Lead consultant:
Experts:
Martin Adams
Rebecca Carter
Elizabeth Daley
Catherine Dom
Alta F�lscher
Anthea Gordon
Peter Oates
Ray Purcell
Stephen Turner