Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: When Does Evaluation Information Lead to Performance-Based Decision Outcomes at Development Banks?

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

International organizations like development banks implement development programs in the world?s poorest places. Evaluation information about past programs can assist development banks in choosing the types of projects that will achieve the best results given scarce development financing. However, despite the commitment that development banks have made to evaluate their programs, there is very little evidence available about when and why evaluation information is actually used to improve decision-making. This research examines the factors that promote or impede the use of evaluation information in resource allocation decisions. Environmental programming has been a priority for development banks since the early-1990s and the environmental outcome of projects has been one of the most consistently measured types of evaluation information across many different programming sectors. As a consequence, the research focuses on environmentally-targeted and environmentally-risky projects. Project evaluations completed by four development banks since 1990 will be coded for several measures of environmental performance. This data will be used to model whether development banks decrease environmentally-risky financing to recipient countries and project types that failed to achieve environmental goals in the past and increase environmentally-targeted financing in cases where past efforts have been successful. These models will be combined with data from development bank staff interviews to produce one of the first rigorous tests of the factors that promote or impede the use of evaluation information in development bank decision-making. This research adds to existing knowledge about effective evaluation use in large organizations by going beyond self-reporting methods and actually verifying when and why evaluation impacts decision outcomes. Given the large sums of money being spent on both development assistance and evaluation, it is vital to understand what external political factors and internal organizational procedures support decision-making that fully utilizes evaluation results.