Evaluations and Reviews:

Identifying Results, Learning Lessons

Monitoring and indicator tracking are activities that are continuously undertaken by management in order to keep abreast of developments and detect potensial problems. But many activities are complex and benefit from more in-depth evaluations or reviews. These are often done with external assistance, both to bring in more specialised skills, but also to provide a comparative perspective to the specific activity being reviewed.

Reviews and evaluations are partly used to identify achievements/ results (addressing accountability), but also to see how activities can be done better in the future (lessons learned).

Scanteam has carried out more than 100 reviews and evaluations over the last ten years across the world. We involve stakeholders as much as possible, from discussing the terms of reference, using local counterparts, involving the client directly, and discussing draft findings carefully before finalising the process. We see the evaluation as a learning exercise for all concerned, and it is one of our aspirations that our local partners will have improved their evaluation knowledge and skills from working with us.

Denmark's Environment Programme

Scanteam carried out an evaluation of Denmark's environmental assistance to five South-East Asian countries. The DKK 1.8 billion programme was highly complex, including nearly 200 activities across a wide range of issues in countries with very different framework conditions. Despite this management challenge, the Danish support produced important achievements, especially in the field of Capacity Development.

The trust built over time between the parties enabled Denmark to introduce more participatory and inclusive approaches to managing environmental problems – a strategic contribution to institutional development well beyond the importance of the project themselves.