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Reorientating the Results Based Agenda

21 March 2013

In foreign aid, results are the buzz word of the day; evaluation, monitoring, and quality control are the means of demonstrating to critical legislators and the public that tax money budgeted to foreign aid does achieve something.

At the ReCom meeting evaluating the research results from the aid and social sectors theme, speakers were asked the question; what role are results-based approaches playing in foreign aid to the social sectors? Experts on health, education, water, sanitation, and social protection tended to agree that there should be a stronger focus on results. However they also suggested that discussion today often seems to be more about taking a stand than tackling the task of improving aid effectiveness through rigorous research and evaluation.