That’s the question the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is asking and they are inviting you to weigh in by answering a brief survey here.
This is a joint post with Rita Perakis.
USAID’s new evaluation policy, announced by Raj Shah at a CGD event on January 19, and written about by Bill Savedoff already on this site here, is not getting nearly enough attention. It not only outlines a new policy. It amounts to fostering a new culture, of transparency and learning.
In a presentation on the new policy hosted yesterday by Carol Lancaster, Dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Ruth Levine of USAID said the new policy responds to the “need to learn” and to “generate accountability”, noting there can be tension between those two.
Here are things to like about it beyond what Bill already highlighted – with some notes of caution (the “buts” below):
Yesterday CGD hosted an event at which Raj Shah, marking his first year as USAID Administrator, gave a major speech to present the changes he has been introducing at USAID and to announce a new evaluation policy. Shah said that USAID is “relentlessly focused on delivering results and learning from success and failure.” But you cannot learn without
In testimony before two House committees, USAID Administrator Raj Shah defended the president’s FY2011 budget request for international development as “a down payment for future peace and prosperity around the world.” His testimony echoed Secretary Clinton’s, but members of Congress see Shah as the person responsible—and accountable—for U.S. development dollars. The question is whether Shah has the authorities and capacities at USAID to fulfill those responsibilities.