Using process tracing to evaluate stakeholder disputes: The case of tender award dispute in Nepal’s forestry

Abstract

In donor aid programs, the claims of causal links between inputs and outputs are crucial to establish the effectiveness of aid. As a result, there has been ample research on the degree and direction of correlation and causality between aid and poverty reduction. While evaluating end outcomes has its merits, this article aims to assess how some donor aid programs come under early criticism and/or are dropped or modified in order to ensure their continuation. This article examines a tender award dispute in a forestry program in Nepal, and traces the causal contribution of actors and actions that obstructed and changed the decisions related to the program implementation plan of this multi-million-dollar initiative. The article employs the process tracing method to search, collect, and assess evidence on the tender dispute case of the selected program. By tracing the logical sequence of evidence, this study establishes causality, linking the hypothesized causes and their effects to explain how the tender award decision that was announced by the lead donor and endorsed by the Government of Nepal was eventually nullified.