Long-Term Swedish Development Co-operation with Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Laos
The Swedish development cooperation agency (Sida) commissioned evaluations of three long-term development co-operation programmes in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Laos. The overall purpose of the evaluations was to provide an historical account of development co-operation, and summarise the experiences and lessons-learned. The primary aim was to provide Sida with an understanding of how its development activities have supported poverty reduction in each country over time.
Such an ambitious and complex evaluation of a country's long-term had never been undertaken before. Sustineo consultants Professor Mark McGillivray and Dr David Carpenter led the evaluation team which also included Stewart Norup, Sustineo's Principal Consultant - Evaluation. The final reports were deemed sufficiently valuable to merit a synthesis of the results of these three country-level evaluations and to enable communication of some general lessons learned to a broader audience, including those interested in long term development co-operation and evaluation. The report goes beyond this initial analysis and looks at the effectiveness of contributions in one-party states and for lessons for working in countries in which a conflict arises. Finally, the study provides a sketch of decision-making criteria for phasing out development co-operation.
The full report is available here.