Evaluation relies on a combination of facts and values (i.e., principles, attributes or qualities held to be intrinsically good, desirable, important and of general worth such as ‘being fair to all’) to judge the merit of an intervention (i.e., a programme or policy). Evaluative criteria specify the values that will be used in an evaluation. While evaluative criteria can be used in different types of evaluations, this brief specifically addresses their use in impact evaluations (i.e., studies that provide information about the long-term effects produced by an intervention; see Brief No. 1, Overview of Impact Evaluation). UNICEF uses a range of evaluative criteria to guide its evaluations; not all of them are used in every evaluation, as some are appropriate to certain interventions and/or types of evaluation only. The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the evaluation must specify the relevant evaluative criteria to use.
Evaluative criteria used in UNICEF impact evaluations of interventions include the following:
The standard OECD-DAC criteria
• Relevance: The extent to which the objectives of an intervention are consistent with recipients’ requirements, country needs, global priorities and partners’ policies.
• Effectiveness: The extent to which the intervention’s objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved, taking into account their relative importance.
• Efficiency: A measure of how economically resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, equipment, etc.) are converted into results.
• Impact: Positive and negative primary and secondary long-term effects produced by the intervention, whether directly or indirectly, intended or unintended.
• Sustainability: The continuation of benefits from the intervention after major development assistance has ceased. Interventions must be both environmentally and financially sustainable. Where the emphasis is not on external assistance, sustainability can be defined as the ability of key stakeholders to sustain intervention benefits – after the cessation of donor funding – with efforts that use locally available resources.