ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the best and most relevant aid policy reports of the 1980s. The dual criterion also rules out cases such as Lord Aldington’s House of Lords European Communities (EC) Committee 1985 report on manufacturing industry, which, although marking the turning of the tide on economic policy, had nothing to do with aid. The most objective evaluation is of little use other than as a management tool or project brief if its findings are not communicable, or communicated, to the policy-makers. If evaluation consists in reviewing elements of policy with a view to implementing improvements, learning from failures and replicating successes, those groups of individuals with direct access to policy-makers stand a good chance of making evaluation effective. Yet in other countries national audit bureaus have exerted a major influence on aid policy. In the EC, the Court of Auditors conducts more pertinent aid evaluation than the Commission.
