Good and Bad Approaches: Case Study Evidence

Abstract

In each of the country studies a common approach was followed based on an agreed methodology. The depth of analysis varied across the studies depending on the resources available, with most involving field studies of one or two weeks, many of them conducted by local researchers. The case studies were not designed to be yet another round of ‘quick and dirty’ evaluations of aid effectiveness, but to provide analyses of good practice (and of factors leading to failure) based on the perceptions of a wide range of stakeholders. These included both ‘insiders’ within the government and donor organizations and ‘outsiders’, namely, intended ‘beneficiaries’ and ‘non-beneficiaries’, ‘opinion formers’ and poor individuals and groups themselves. Information was gathered from project and programme documents, monitoring and evaluation reports (where available), interviews at a regional or national level, and through visits to project and programme sites.