Frameworks for evaluating law and justice development assistance: Lessons from Australia’s involvement in PNG

Abstract

For over 20 years Australia has provided assistance to Papua New Guinea in the development of their law and justice sector. The Justice Services and Stability for Development program is the most recent of such law and justice development assistance programs. Much like its predecessors, while it made some achievements, efforts have ultimately underperformed due to an inadequate and donor-centric monitoring and evaluation framework. It is contended that although an ideal monitoring and evaluation framework will not guarantee development results, it is a prerequisite. This ideal framework adopts the learning-effectiveness model and constructivist approach, relies on mechanisms such as self-reporting and qualitative research tested against context-centric indicators and is necessarily staged in its rollout design.