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
Posté le 29/08/2025
La culture organisationnelle et les décisions de gestion stratégique influencent l’adoption des recommandations.
Je recommande principalement entre 4 et 8 actions que le client peut mettre en œuvre dans un délai donné, et je demande au personnel quel type de recommandations ils souhaitent entendre / donner eux-mêmes / ou adresser à d’autres projets traitant du même sujet.
Certaines organisations internationales ou équipes de projet considèrent les rapports d’évaluation davantage comme un outil de redevabilité que comme un outil d’apprentissage ; formuler des recommandations orientées vers l’apprentissage serait donc une perte de temps. En revanche, des recommandations visant à améliorer la collecte de données et le système de suivi peuvent être proposées.
Par ailleurs, les recommandations qui se situent en dehors de la théorie du changement / de la compréhension de l’objet de l’évaluation par le client / ou par les utilisateurs des évaluations, ne peuvent pas être formulées même si elles sont utiles. Un exemple est celui d’un chef de projet d’une organisation internationale qui agit comme un responsable d’ONG malgré son passeport onusien : il est alors difficile de communiquer aux clients quel est ou devrait être le rôle des Nations Unies dans un domaine d’action au-delà de la mise en œuvre d’un projet national. De même, certaines ONG environnementales réinventent la roue en promouvant de petites entreprises vertes, incapables de tirer parti de l’ensemble des connaissances d’organisations spécialisées dans la promotion des PME, car cela se situe en dehors de leur réseau social.