Knowing what works

A total of 169 projects implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) were evaluated in 2015-2016 for the evaluation report. These projects earned an average overall score of 1.9 – an improvement on the last evaluation report, when the overall score was 2.2 on average.

The evaluation was conducted according to the uniform global standard of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). More than a quarter of the 169 projects evaluated were rated ‘very successful’, more than half (53 per cent) ‘successful’, 16 per cent ‘rather successful’ and two per cent ‘rather unsatisfactory’.

‘We want to learn, and part of that means openly and transparently assessing what works well and what doesn’t,’ states Christoph Beier, Vice-Chair of the GIZ Management Board. ‘That is the only way to move forward, implement what’s good on a broader scale, and acknowledge and correct shortcomings.’

GIZ’s own evaluation system was also checked, revealing that the evaluations were beneficial and efficient. Nevertheless, project evaluation quality was only at an average level when measured by international standards. This fell short of GIZ’s own targets, which is why it has fundamentally reformed its evaluation system. Since the middle of last year, project evaluation has been managed centrally and is independent of GIZ’s operational units. The main aim is to improve methodological quality and increase impartiality.

Please find the Evaluation Report 2017 ,Knowing what works.’ here.