Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid

The working group "Evaluation of Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid" (originally only Development Policy) was formed at the first annual conference of the Evaluation Society (DeGEval) in September 1998 on the initiative of Prof. Dr. Reinhard Stockmann. The aim is to discuss important topics in the evaluation of development cooperation, stabilization, transitional aid and humanitarian aid on a broad basis, i.e. across disciplinary and institutional boundaries and between academics and practitioners.

The aim is to build a bridge between politics, theory and practice in an ongoing dialogue and to contribute to the improvement of evaluations in development cooperation, stabilization, transitional aid and humanitarian aid. The working group thus represents a forum that is open to all persons and institutions involved in the evaluation of relevant projects and programs (BMZ, AA, implementing organizations, NGOs, political foundations, churches, universities, consultancies, freelance evaluators, etc.) and enables a regular exchange of experience on current developments and problems.

You can find an overview of the working group's activities and publications from 1998-2020 in our website archive.

Tasks and objectives of the Working Group on Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid

The central tasks of the working group are

• the promotion of inter-institutional learning through a permanent exchange of experiences in different fields of action, as well as
• to contribute to the further development of theory, practice and methods of evaluation through open discussion of concepts currently being planned or applied and the exchange of experiences and results;
• Participation in the development of a generally accepted understanding of terms (definitions etc.) as well as the development of standards, quality criteria and quality indicators as the basis of a common evaluation culture.

In various discussions, a number of tasks have emerged in which the members see further objectives for the working group. The following goals were agreed upon

• Development of standards and quality criteria as professional guidance for development policy evaluators. Cooperation with the DeGEval Board, which has also tackled the development of general standards, is a good idea here. The working group will provide input for the development of general standards, taking into account DC/HuAid-specific features.
• Provision of an Internet-based information exchange with relevant materials on evaluation in development cooperation/humanitarian aid, which should contain both published and gray literature (e.g. evaluation guidelines, reporting grids, evaluation reports, etc.).
• Contributions to the further training and qualification of evaluators, initially through a searchable summary of existing offers (in the long term possibly even through the independent organization of further training events).
• Development of practical methodological guidelines for experts based on the knowledge gained through mutual exchange.