Monitoring and evaluation of foreign policy projects can work, if asking the right questions

A new study (German and English summary) by Andrea Binder and Philipp Rotmann examines the monitoring and evaluation of foreign policy projects in fragile contexts. In reviewing evaluation practice in the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US, the authors find that classical approaches have generally not been able to identify causal relationships or scientifically measure impact, leading to widespread disappointment. For fair and useful results, they argue that reviewers must devote extensive attention to defining evaluation questions and choose criteria, procedures and methods that suit the challenges of fragile contexts. The study was commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office.