Paper short abstract:

Over the past three decades, there has been a shift in dominant models of aid intervention and evidence. The study explores the evolution of aid in three phases: sectoral, entrepreneurial and technological, and critically accounts for particular ways of providing evidence.

Paper long abstract:

Genuine learning to make a difference can be achieved by applying a historical lens to reflect methodological approaches that may have offered or obscured broader lessons. The study draws attention to the fact that there are models that specify prevailing forms of evidence, and it is critical to recognize weaknesses as well as strengthens of particular models. On this aim, the study explores the evolution of aid intervention and evidence in three periods: sectoral period (1985-2000), entrepreneurial period (2000-2015), and technological period (2016-).

In the sectoral aid period, important aid reform agenda driven by donor countries was, at a minimum, to make aid allocation correspond to the development priorities of the recipient country. This paper analyzes that a disproportionate share of aid is allocated to sectors where it is simple to match demand and supply.

The second phase marked by a shift in focus from the need-intervention tie to the intervention-impact tie, placing greater emphasis on credible means of measuring actual outcomes. The accumulation of impact evaluations has also contributed to burgeoning of cash-oriented interventions towards individual entrepreneurs. The paper discusses the necessity of identifying theoretical framework to unpack the black box of impact evaluations of cash-based projects.

The third phase concerns the last piece of the puzzle - that is evaluation uptake into policy (scaling) in multi-stakeholder contexts. The paper identifies evaluation continuum that data-intensive projects tend to inform and some barriers that affect translation of digital data into production of high quality evidence.