Improving utilization of aid experience and evaluations

In June 1982, the GAO reinforced A.I.D."s concern for the utilization of its evaluative information in a report on "Experience -- A Potential Tool for Improving U.S. Assistance Abroad." This study of opportunities to improve the utilization of A.I.D."s evaluative information is one of several actions initiated by A.I.D."s Office of Evaluation in the Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination based on the recommendations of the 1980 Evaluation Task Force. It also responds to concerns expressed in the June 1982 GAO report. The study, carried out by Arthur D. Little, Inc., was divided into two phases. During Phase I, interviews were conducted with A.I.D. staff in Washington. From these interviews, the authors elicited a total of 43 suggestions for innovative practices which could facilitate improved utilization of A.I.D."s evaluative information. Phase II of the study was devoted to testing seven of these innovative ideas and to the further refinement of ideas which A.I.D. might itself test in the coming months and years. Through the institutionalization of ideas tested during this study and the pursuit of other innovations identified, it should be possible for A.I.D. to make major improvements in the utilization of experience. (Author abstract)