Senior Consultant for Mid-term Reviews and Terminal Evaluations
project, programme, thematic and policy evaluations in the field of natural resource management, biodiversity, agroforestry and agroeology, value chains and bioeconomy , TA and FA
focus on evaluations for innovation and learning,
private sector engagement, evaluations of sustainability standards and voluntary actions of business.
geographical coverage: India and South Asia, Central Asia and Latin America
Dear Lal,
the question we can ask is if the theory of change is valid under the existing circumstances. And I feel that the theory of change is not valid regarding the assumptions that projects can keep young people in the country side because some empirical studies show that even in slums incomes are higher than in agriculture and people have access to basic infrastructure like legal services, education, entertainment and social networks. So the mobile young people which have some resources like a good education leave the country side for upward mobility and a better infrastructure. Remaining young people have very few resources. They are only cheap labour ... and sometimes not even cheap labour anymore if they are undernourished and uneducated. Those people lack resources like education, social networks towards markets and politics to change land tenure structure. In China and Europe, relatively wealthy people from cities and international careers come back to the country side to pursue a life as organic farmers because they want a more relaxed life in the country side and have the resources like money to invest in the company, access to clients buying at higher prices and access to education for their kids founding private schools in the country side. Only in areas where one of those external conditions can be met by project and state policies like in the Indian Himalayas for organic certification and 4 times higher prices on markets, the incentives are high enough for traditional farmers to stay in the countryside. Basic problems like land tenure in India are not changed by projects for green youth employment but only mitigated by creating high value products on tiny pieces of land or additional services like solar energy technicians are promoted by projects of Welthungerhilfe in India.
So for most of the projects I would challenge the theory of change ref. adding real impact at big scale. Small scale impacts can be created see above.
Ines
freelance consultant for evaluation and knowledge management in projects for water and rural development
Dear Filippo,
thank you very much for sharing this easy to use and powerful tool. it can be used in all countries, it even adds value to official statistics in developed countries like Germany where the tool shows that among the poorest sectors of the populations prevails moderate and once a month severe food insecurity.
Kind regards
Ines
Germany
Ines Freier
Senior consultant for NRM and biodiversity, Green economy
consultant
Publicado el 29/08/2025
La cultura organizacional y las decisiones de gestión estratégica influyen en la adopción de las recomendaciones.
Normalmente recomiendo entre 4 y 8 acciones que el cliente puede implementar en un plazo determinado, y pregunto al personal qué tipo de recomendaciones quieren escuchar / dar ellos mismos / o dar a otros proyectos con la misma temática.
Algunas organizaciones internacionales o equipos de proyecto ven los informes de evaluación más como una herramienta de rendición de cuentas que como una herramienta de aprendizaje; por lo tanto, dar recomendaciones orientadas al aprendizaje sería una pérdida de tiempo. En cambio, se pueden formular recomendaciones para la recopilación de datos y la mejora del sistema de monitoreo.
Asimismo, las recomendaciones que se encuentran fuera de la teoría del cambio / de la comprensión del objeto de la evaluación por parte del cliente / o de los usuarios de las evaluaciones, no pueden darse aunque sean útiles. Un ejemplo es cuando un gerente de proyecto de una organización internacional actúa como un responsable de ONG a pesar de tener un pasaporte de la ONU: en ese caso, es difícil comunicar a los clientes cuál es o debería ser el papel de las Naciones Unidas en un ámbito de acción más allá de la implementación de un proyecto en un solo país. De igual manera, algunas ONG medioambientales reinventan la rueda al promover pequeñas empresas verdes, sin poder aprovechar el cuerpo de conocimiento de las organizaciones especializadas en la promoción de PYMEs, porque esto queda fuera de su red social.