ABSTRACT
One participant remarked on the market for evaluators who were underpaid and under pressure to produce results—and on the relationship between the policy research agenda and the efficient use of information. Evaluators did not need a single approach to the evaluation of poverty reduction; they needed to tailor their approach and methodology to circumstances. In discussing a single specific case he had tried to suggest some issues of possibly wider relevance in evaluating poverty education, but he did not claim any sort of model. If the development community really wanted poverty reduction, how it engaged the group was perhaps more useful than what happened to the group. One of the challenges conferees faced, said M. Nurul Alam, was to move beyond projects and programs to development outcomes. As for whether Robert Picciotto's was being politically correct in not mentioning the extremely poor governance in most of Africa, Erik Thorbecke said he was very much aware of it.
