PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AS A TOOL FOR IMPROVED SUSTAINABILITY IN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

‘Every human conduct that is not totally impulsive or just routine mechanics seems to be guided by an evaluation process’ (Dewey, 1939). Switching away from this individual definition of evaluation, the thesis acknowledges the definition given by OECD-DAC and focus the experimentation of well-known multicriteria decision aiding methodologies for ex-ante assessment in a specific development cooperation case study. Chapters 1 and 2, resume the structured bibliographic that has been conducted in order to identify an updated sample of literature about evaluation in development cooperation. During the evolution of the sector, several approaches and methodologies have been conceived and are continuously developing in order to match the variety of evaluanda and contexts. So, three main approaches can be defined, still keeping in mind that they are interlaced in their mutual evolution: the “Positivist-Experimental”, the “Pragmatist-Quality” and the “Constructive-Social Process” approaches group the contributions of several authors, ranging from the more theoretical philosophical basis to the development of specific methodologies and practical techniques. The reality of human development today, as defined by UN through SDGs, requests a multifaceted approach that is capable of mixing the existing approaches, methodologies and techniques. Pluralism of values and focus on the real use of evaluation results through participatory knowledge management are the key elements of the “Constructivist-Social Process approach” which is gaining attention in development cooperation evaluation systems. The literature review took in consideration the state of art of governmental and non-governmental organizations for worldwide and brought to the conclusion that ESs are nowadays in the middle of a renovation process which is far from being concluded. For this reason, we worked in order to provide new insights about sound methodologies able to integrate the different paradigms and methodologies in order to keep methodological robustness and allow a transformative evaluation process to take place in a specific case study. Chapter 3 frames our case study that is located in the Diocese of Goma, Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. The framework for this case study is provided by a 3-year EU-funded project called ARDST ‘Appui au retour de réfugiés et déplacés par le biais de la sécurisation de terres en Diocèse de Goma’, led by Caritas Development Goma NGO. The project started in February 2016 and ended in June 2019. In this context our research group was asked to lead a strategic sectoral evaluation. The aim of the evaluation was to inform the choice of interventions meant to trigger sustainable agricultural development in the Diocese of Goma. Chapters 4 to 6 report the pre-print version of three scientific papers issued from the research. Chapter 4 deals with the sketching of a spatial decision support system aimed at Multi-Criteria Evaluation of potential pilot sites for agricultural development and refugees’ resettlement. Land disputes are considered both key sources and perpetuating factors of conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Existing literature demonstrates that remote sensing is a useful tool for systematically monitor the spatial-temporal land use/land cover dynamics in many regions of the world. For this reason, in this Chapter we propose a methodology for the integration of different sources of information, namely satellite imagery and census information, in order to set up multi-method approach for evidence-based decision-making in development cooperation. Chapter 5 deals with the use of a simplified multicriteria decision-making methodology and namely the application of a simplified form of pairwise ranking (SPWR). International Aid initiatives involve complex real-world decision-making problems in all their relevant phases. Agri-environmental and generally landscape-scale issues are the typical target of participative decision-making procedures as they involve community resources planning. To successfully solve the complex real-world problems multi-criteria group decision-making approaches are recognized as reliable and effective. Main research questions are : What are the priorities for intervention in order to achieve sustainable development of the agricultural sector in the case study? Is SPWR a sound technique to prioritize different alternatives for intervention while improving group consensus in real-world complex cases? SPWR was found to be a useful technique for eliciting discussion among a multidisciplinary group for pointing out and discuss inconsistencies in decision makers’ preferences. Moreover, the final group ranking matches the existing guidelines for sustainable agricultural development in the region demonstrating that SPWR is a sound technique for prioritization of alternatives in the fields of agricultural development and international aid. Chapter 6 deals with the use of a modified form of analytic hierarchy process, namely the participatory analytic hierarchy process (PAHP), as a tool for choice criteria elicitation and resource allocation in the framework of our case study. In the field of international aid the participatory approaches to assessment, research, management and budgeting have been widely studied and applied in the last decades, mostly because international aid initiatives, in all their relevant phases from planning through implementation, monitoring and evaluation, are faced with the problem of identifying initiatives that could be successfully and sustainably implemented. During our research, we were able to make use of most frequent inconsistencies in pairwise comparison matrixes in order to stimulate the debate, to adjust local preferences and to build consensus across the group. From an operational point of view, the PAHP methodology was also suited for training the project team and for identifying a shared resource allocation pattern, which matches the existing international guidelines for agricultural development in the region. Finally, in Chapter 7, we use the results of our research to support the proposal of the wider use of the experimented evaluation approaches and methodologies as tools for fostering the diffusion of evaluation culture in development cooperation, which in turns is a key objective to foster the impact of interventions aiming sustainability. In fact, in development cooperation, the dissemination at all levels of a culture of evaluation and the construction of solid, adaptive and inclusive feedback and decision-making systems are seen as possible solutions to the everlasting doubt about development cooperation impact. In our research, we experimented a methodological approach and some specific multicriteria participatory techniques that should be taken into account when trying to link in a completely interconnected chain, the cooperation results on different scales and to evaluate, both ex-ante and ex-post, its overall contribution towards the SDGs.