Evaluating Development Projects Research Articles

Petrophysical Considerations for CO2 Capture and Storage

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a process that involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and storing them in geological formations. While the challenge of CCUS is one of multiple disciplines, this paper will discuss the key petrophysical considerations worth noting for CCUS projects. As the storage capacity and effectiveness of the storage reservoir depend on the physical and chemical properties of the geological formations that are used for storage, petrophysicists working on CCUS projects must have a good understanding of the subsurface and its limitations. Any CCUS project can be better managed by application and adherence to the CO2 Storage Resources Management System (SRMS), which aims to develop a consistent approach to estimating storable quantities of CO2 in the subsurface and evaluating development projects. In this paper, we will also discuss a risk matrix that we have designed as a tool for project petrophysicists to document uncertainties and rank them to enhance communication with team members. We finally share a petrophysical checklist to highlight considerations as the evaluation of prospective, contingent, and (commercial storage) capacity-scale CCUS projects are matured and use a well in the North West Shelf, Australia, as a case study to show how reservoirs can be analyzed for suitability for CO2 storage.

Ensuring the environmental development of the far east

Within the economic sectors, priorities (directions) are identified related to the most promising development of individual sectors of the economy of the Far East (agriculture, industry, fuel and energy complex, transport complex, health resort sector, etc.). The following priorities (directions) are also highlighted separately: environmental safety, innovative and technological development, increasing the life safety of the population, etc. From the point of view of making management decisions for the sustainable environmental development of the Far East: the degree of priority of elements of financial security within the framework of ensuring the financial stability and security of the Far East is considered; the main characteristics of the components of financial security are proposed, the types of risks in the region are identified in the context of its main elements; criteria have been identified that determine the priority of elements for ensuring sustainable development, threats, and the interconnection of elements of the logical “security chain”; a conceptual model for ensuring sustainable development of the Far East has been constructed. In order to maintain a harmonious blend of technology, innovation, and sustainable growth in the region, it is suggested that the key focus of the strategy should be on embracing the principles of ESG development. This includes promoting sustainable practices in the environmental, social, and managerial sectors through a project-based approach. By evaluating development projects based on ESG principles, the region can attract financial support from private investors at lower rates, amidst growing interest from both local and foreign investors, investment funds, private individuals, and banks.

Using the Outcomes Harvesting method to monitor and evaluate development projects and programmes: A Bibliometric analysis

Using the Outcomes Harvesting method to monitor and evaluate development projects and programmes: A Bibliometric analysis

From Theory to Practice: The Student Experience Evaluating Development Projects Focused on Nature-Based Solutions

Graduate students often seek hands-on experiences in the international development field. Given that Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid each year, we expected that reviewing the design, implementation, and outcomes of their environmental projects would provide valuable learning outcomes for students. This novel study on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) gave students the opportunity to engage directly with practitioners in the review of 50 environmental projects across 45 countries. A team of professionals from the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the GEF and eight students from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy developed lessons learned from reviewing the GEF portfolio over a twenty-year time span. When screening projects for enabling conditions including theory of change, climate risk screening, multi-stakeholder engagement, and adaptive management, most had stronger explanations of the environmental than the social outcomes sought, and only more recent ones incorporated climate risk screening. The process and findings associated with this educational experience contributed to students’ climate change leadership development; for example, by learning about the tradeoffs and possible co-benefits of improving both environmental conditions and livelihoods in less developed countries. Our research led to practice advice for the design of future GEF projects, as well as ideas for future coursework to further bridge the gap between theory and practice in academia, which we believe to be essential to preparing the next generation of climate leaders.

A micro-based approach to evaluate the effect of water supply on health in Uganda

• We merge individual panel datasets with sub-county level administrative data on water supply projects. • We estimate fixed-effects panel regressions to account for spatial and temporal variation at the sub-county level. • Provision for improved water is found to have a significant effect on water usage and water collection times. • No statistically significant effects of improved water are found for reported diarrhoea incidence. • Our approach is a cost-effective means of evaluating development projects. This paper proposes a micro-based approach to investigate the impact of improved water provision on individual health outcomes in rural Uganda. We merge household and individual panel datasets with sub-county level administrative data on water supply projects. Our approach allows us to estimate fixed-effect panel data models which use temporal and spatial variation at the sub-county level as identifying variation. We find evidence that the installation of improved water sources leads to higher reported improved water usage, and shorter water collection times. However, increasing the sub-county rate of improved water sources per capita does not seem to be sufficient to lead to a statistically significant effect in the likelihood of individuals suffering from symptoms of illness associated with inadequate water supply. We argue that our micro-based approach provides a cost-effective means of evaluating development projects. The approach is scalable, i.e. it can be applied to other settings and countries.

‘These are all outside words’: Translating development discourse in NGOs’ projects in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi

This article discusses the challenges encountered by NGO staff when translating the discourse of international development into the local languages of low-income countries as part of their efforts to communicate with the communities with which they work and to deliver successful projects. Development discourse is characterised by the use of vague and complex English buzzwords, which are not directly translatable into other languages and carry culturally specific connotations. This issue has rarely been problematized in Development Studies or in Translation Studies. We address this gap by drawing on data from 69 semi-structured interviews with staff from international and Southern NGOs in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi. Participants were asked to explain how they translated development discourse when designing, delivering or evaluating development projects and to describe the linguistic and cultural challenges they encountered when doing so. They were also asked to evaluate the impact of translation and interpreting issues on project outcomes. Our findings indicate that poor translation of buzzwords can seriously compromise the ability of communities to understand the purpose of projects and to participate in them in a meaningful way. The findings also underline the value of using local interpreters to build understanding and trust between NGOs and communities.

‘These are all outside words’: Translating development discourse in NGOs’ projects in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi

This article discusses the challenges encountered by NGO staff when translating the discourse of international development into the local languages of low-income countries as part of their efforts to communicate with the communities with which they work and to deliver successful projects. Development discourse is characterised by the use of vague and complex English buzzwords, which are not directly translatable into other languages and carry culturally specific connotations. This issue has rarely been problematized in Development Studies or in Translation Studies. We address this gap by drawing on data from 69 semi-structured interviews with staff from international and Southern NGOs in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi. Participants were asked to explain how they translated development discourse when designing, delivering or evaluating development projects and to describe the linguistic and cultural challenges they encountered when doing so. They were also asked to evaluate the impact of translation and interpreting issues on project outcomes. Our findings indicate that poor translation of buzzwords can seriously compromise the ability of communities to understand the purpose of projects and to participate in them in a meaningful way. The findings also underline the value of using local interpreters to build understanding and trust between NGOs and communities.

The Millennium Villages Project and Local Land Values: Using Hedonic Pricing Methods to Evaluate Development Projects

Summary This paper uses hedonic analysis to estimate the impact of an area-based anti-poverty project on land values in a developing country. Economic theory would suggest that benefits of area-based programs would be capitalized into land prices, as supply is relatively fixed compared to other factors of production. While revealed preference methods have been applied widely in the field of environmental economics, they have not yet been used to evaluate an international development project. We study the effects of The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in Sauri, Kenya. Using administrative data from the Kenyan government on prices for land bought and sold within the MVP (established in 2005) and for land bought and sold in the surrounding area during 1999–2013, we estimate the project’s effect on local land prices. We find no evidence that the MVP investments led to an increase in land prices within project areas. This research represents the first work to use hedonic analysis of land values to assess an international development project.

The Evaluation of Innovations. How to Evaluate the Transformative Value of the Cohesion Policy for Managing Purposes


 
 
 The Cohesion Policy aims at creating a transformative value to societies in addition to tra- ditional public values. The implementation of Cohesion Policy has been organized by tem- porary organizations, such as projects, to promote innovations, knowledge and learning. The problem is that the performance concept used for managing the policy is founded on traditional technical and economic values, theoretically neglecting the benefits of innova- tion projects, and potentially opening up for profound steering problems. To what extent can the transformative added value of innovation projects be evaluated by the traditional performance concept? And are the traditional and the new transformative performance con- cepts consistent for managing purposes? In this study the performance framework is revised with regard to the benefits of projects as policy tools. The revised concept for assessing performance of projects is then statistically compared to the traditional performance con- cept by operationalizing them on regional development projects in Finland during the Co- hesion Policy program 2007-2013. The study shows that the new performance concept is consistent in evaluating development projects’ performance in a complex administrative system. The new and traditional concepts are, however, inconsistent in providing steering signals. This raises concerns for the effects of performance management of project driven policy implementation.
 
 

L’évaluation Des Projets D’eau Potable En Milieu Urbain Par L’analyse Factorielle

The projects currently funded and implemented in several African cities are aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); the focus is on improving access to basic services, including drinking water. However, very few evaluations of these projects result in a transparent reading of their contributions to the actual achievement of aforementioned MDGs, namely poverty reduction. Indeed, the large number of variables to handle in targeting evaluation units and analysing data often makes their representation difficult to understand for decision makers. Moreover, the choice of targets to be assessed remains a permanent concern. Factor analysis is a statistical tool facilitating target identification and focussing evaluations on the most relevant parameters in order to measure the objective achievement announced in the project documents. Indeed, the evaluation restriction to relevant variables enables a clear demonstration of the evaluation performance, while facilitating the reconciliation of views between scientists, technicians and decision makers. Through a case study, this document aims at showing descriptively the relevance of this tool in evaluating development projects. It focuses on the effectiveness evaluation in targeting grants for water connections as a part of the improvement of drinking water access in Yaoundé city’s precarious neighborhoods (Project AQUA / GPOBA) project. Principal and multiple components analysis associated with factor analysis of correspondences thus identified 5 relevant household poverty evaluation variables in Yaoundé’s precarious neighbourhoods, as well as the adequate distance to the network that would enable actually poor households to reach GPOBA grants.

The Development Project as an Institution for Agency and Capability Expansion: The Case of the Njombe Milk Project

Most development organisations have traditionally used the Logical Framework Approach to design, monitor and evaluate development projects. We depart from this mechanical view and join an emerging literature that recognises project complexity as well as the importance of institutional dynamics. The article deals with an evaluation of a multi-sectoral project in Tanzania, centred on the production, selling and distribution of milk in schools. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods and using the capability approach as conceptual framework, we analysed the project’s effect on selected functionings, entitlements and agency of the different stakeholders. We found a positive effect on nutrition knowledge, farmers’ earnings and milk production, and an interesting unintended outcome of the project, an increase in children’s school attendance. However, an in-depth institutional analysis reveals problems in the institutional setting and in the relationships between stakeholders that undermine a sustainable human development process.

Using the SPE/WPC/AAPG/SPEE/SEG PRMS To Evaluate Unconventional Resources

Summary It is the intention of the SPE/World Petroleum Council (WPC)/ American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)/ Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE)/ Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS) to provide a consistent approach to estimating petroleum quantities, evaluating development projects, and presenting results within a comprehensive classification framework. The reserves and resources definitions and application guidelines are designed to be applicable to both conventional and unconventional petroleum accumulations, regardless of their in-place characteristics, the extraction method applied, or the degree of processing required to yield a marketable product. The fact that unconventional resources are usually pervasive throughout a large area and are not significantly affected by hydrodynamic influences may require different approaches in evaluation. Assessments may include an increased sampling density to define uncertainty of in-place volumes and the variations in quality of reservoir and of hydrocarbons and their detailed spatial distribution for the design of specialized extraction methods. This paper summarizes the special problems in the estimation and evaluation of shale gas. However, similar procedures can be used for other unconventional resources. The material is largely drawn from the recently published SPE Application Guidelines to the PRMS, supplemented with illustrations from actual field examples. The rapidly advancing exploitation of unconventional resources has opened up many development opportunities, especially in North America. Shale gas and bitumen have already caused major impact on energy supply. We anticipate these opportunities will expand rapidly throughout the world. Achieving a better understanding of the special problems in unconventional-resources evaluation will help us build on PRMS to develop a more consistent approach to classification and categorization, accounting for unique project risks and uncertainties.

Using Mixed Methods in Monitoring and Evaluation: Experiences from International Development

This paper provides an overview of the various ways in which mixing qualitative and quantitative methods could add value to monitoring and evaluating development projects. In particular it examines how qualitative methods could address some of the limitations of randomized trials and other quantitative impact evaluation methods; it also explores the importance of examiningprocessin addition toimpact, distinguishing design from implementation failures, and the value of mixed methods in the real-time monitoring of projects. It concludes by suggesting topics for future research -- including the use of mixed methods in constructing counterfactuals, and in conducting reasonable evaluations within severe time and budget constraints.

Evaluating Development Projects and Programmes in Africa: The Case of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)

This article begins with a brief introduction on monitoring and evaluation concepts, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and challenges of its performance evaluation. It is indicated that NEPAD has not prescribed any internal or external monitoring and evaluation of its projects and programmes, and therefore calls into doubt the level of professional competence in its delivery strategies. The article also examines selected monitoring and evaluation strategies such as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and others, which are embedded in the NEPAD workplan, but not suffi ciently applied in its operations. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms such as the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and a few benchmarking evaluation techniques are recommended as possible introductory tools that could assist in the monitoring and evaluation of the NEPAD projects and programmes. Africa Insight Vol. 37 (4) 2008 pp. 61-74

But how do we Know we are Making a Difference? Issues relating to the evaluation of Christian development work

There has, over the last few decades, been a considerable growth in the development ‘business’ where, largely western, donors have sought to help the poorer nations develop. Much of this growth has been driven by Christian motivation. Increasingly such projects are being held accountable to try to ensure that the money and the effort being spent are being well spent. The question that is being asked of, and by, development workers is ‘how do we know that we are making a difference?’ and a range of practices have been developed to assess, to measure, to evaluate such effects. Terms like impact assessment, objectives, log-frames, objective verifiable indicators, baselines, clients, have become part of the language. In this paper the author raises various fundamental questions about this practice of evaluating development projects, and in so doing challenges the suitability of some of the current practices for development work.

The value of narratives in rural development projects: A case from Ecuador

This paper suggests that a ‘narrative’ perspective can provide a fruitful way to o learn from rural development experiences and improve the organizational capacity of development projects. In this paper a number of conceptual windows are suggested for the analysis of narratives in projects. Our view is that narratives contribute to explain how actors align themselves within local processes of project negotiation. Following this line, the paper suggests three priority areas for attention: Firstly, the study of how policy makers address the discontinuities between policy formulation and policy implementation. Secondly, the analysis of the relation between people who do not have trust in a project and the process of attribution of agency. Thirdly, the distribution of responsibilities within a project. This last area is especially important when trust is called into play and actors' ability to cope with project demands starts to break down. In our view these three areas are of paramount importance and are directly connected with the significance of narratives in evaluating development projects.

The combined use of the participatory dialogue method and survey methodology to evaluate development projects: A case study of a rural development project in Bangladesh

This is a case study that shows how the qualitative and participatory dialogue method was combined with survey methodology to evaluate the impact of a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) supported bilateral and credit-based rural development project (RD-12) for the landless poor in Bangladesh. The article argues that although the necessity and importance of statistical and quantitative evaluation is not denied, qualitative participatory evaluation has a complementary role to play in producing a body of unique and illuminative data on qualitative developmental impacts. The findings on the social and economic impacts of the project obtained using the dialogue method were integrated with the quantitative data obtained from the survey. The findings show how the qualitative details and insights enriched the bare-bone statistical information. A more comprehensive body of knowledge on the psychosocial changes among the beneficiaries and the development process at large was elicited from the survey questionnaire. More importantly, the developmental impacts were described and viewed from the beneficiaries’ own perceptions and perspectives and in their own words. The article lists a number of lessons that were learned while using the dialogue method to evaluate this project.

Chaos and certainty in development

Only partially obscured by the mountain of paper the development business generates, a striking tension is materializing. On the one hand, for most observers the world seems ever more uncertain. At the same time, development decision makers insist on ever higher levels of certainty before they will release funds and undertake programs. Within this tension, the conjunction of development funding and research casts research in a particular role. Claimed research findings become the required language for proposing and evaluating development projects. Approved methods delimit the legitimate participants in the research process and the legitimate interventions in development discussions. The research deemed acceptable legitimizes particular courses of action and obscures the politics of excluding others. At the same time, although a vast amount of research is undertaken in this setting, the research that fulfills this role is limited in perspective and approach and little subject to critical review by people with relevant expertise. This combination displaces the healthy skepticism of inquiry and the increasing recognition of discontinuities and uncertainty in favor of a frequently unqualified certainty. Both research and development are poorly served.

Monitoring and evaluating (M&E): The South Asian experience

AbstractAccording to a 1987 monitoring and evaluation (M&E) conference in Pakistan, South Asian M&E efforts have been undermined by organizational confusion, overcentralization, neglect of evaluation, weakness of data, and inadequate training, among other problems. Studies from India, Pakistan, and Nepal, among other South Asian countries, indicate the impact of these problems. In reducing the problems, efforts should be made to make the collection and use of M&E data less threatening, more practical, and more relevant to the intended beneficiaries of development projects.This article summarizes material presented in Ahmed, V. and Bamberger, M. (1989). Monitoring and Evaluating Development Projects: the South Asian Experience. The World Bank ED1 Seminar Series, Washington D.C.

Ahmed, Viqar and Bamberger, Michael, "Monitoring and Evaluating Development Projects: The South Asian Experience" (Book Review)

Ahmed, Viqar and Bamberger, Michael, "Monitoring and Evaluating Development Projects: The South Asian Experience" (Book Review)