Evaluating relative success of donor-funded collaborative research projects

This article reviews approaches commonly used to evaluate official development assistance programmes and projects, considers their utility for lessons learned, and proposes a simple methodology for evaluating the relative success of research projects. While current approaches each have appropriate uses, they do not readily provide a way of systematically evaluating the relative success of multiple projects without the need for complex reviews and analyses. This is a constraint for research managers in donor organizations, such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), in facilitating organizational learnings, including factors that contribute to project success. The proposed evaluation methodology assesses two dimensions of project success: achievements of the research project, and the impacts arising from the research. Four assessment criteria are identified for each dimension, and are scored largely by reviewing existing project records. The methodology includes suggested evaluation questions and evidence requirements, and generates a scoring matrix. The methodology allows assessors to vary the weighting assigned in scoring, and to interpret outcomes, in terms most relevant to the purpose and context of particular evaluations. It was tested by application to 10 collaborative forestry research projects funded by ACIAR and implemented in Vietnam. The results indicate that the evaluation methodology is useful in identifying the relative success of research projects, particularly for the research achievements dimension. Its usefulness for the research impacts dimension depends on the nature of the research project and its impacts, the timing of the assessment after project completion, and how well the impacts have been documented.