OECD DAC Criteria for NGO Evaluation Management Training Course

Course overview

NGO managers are frequently asked to show whether a programme made a credible difference, whether resources were used responsibly, and what should change before the next funding cycle. Yet evaluations can produce reports that satisfy a donor template without answering operational questions: why referral uptake stalled, whether local partners could sustain services, or whether a response complemented other actors’ work. This course equips participants to commission, manage, review and use evaluations against the six OECD DAC criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.

Participants learn to turn a programme theory of change and stakeholder priorities into focused evaluation questions, criteria-specific indicators, judgement rubrics and a feasible evaluation matrix. They practise selecting suitable designs and evidence sources; assessing contribution rather than overstating attribution; building ethical data-collection plans; and managing evaluators through terms of reference, inception reports, quality assurance and report review. The course also addresses cross-cutting issues including equity, gender, protection, localisation, conflict sensitivity and participation within DAC-criteria-based evaluation management.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with a running humanitarian-development case involving livelihoods, protection and local partner capacity. Participants work in small groups to critique weak evaluation questions, score evidence against rubrics, resolve conflicting stakeholder findings and challenge unsupported conclusions in a draft report. Each participant leaves with a completed OECD DAC evaluation management pack for a live or realistic programme: a criteria-based question set, evaluation matrix, stakeholder and ethics plan, terms-of-reference outline, report-quality checklist and management-response template.

The course is designed for NGO staff who already work with programmes, MEAL systems, grants or partnerships and need to lead evaluations with greater methodological control. It is equally useful for managers approving evaluation budgets who need findings that support adaptation, accountability and credible donor reporting.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Formulate OECD DAC criteria-based evaluation questions for relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability
• Construct an evaluation matrix linking questions, indicators, evidence sources, methods, sampling and judgement criteria
• Develop a theory-of-change-based contribution analysis plan that distinguishes plausible contribution from unsupported attribution
• Draft evaluation terms of reference with scope, deliverables, evaluator competencies, governance arrangements and quality standards
• Apply rubric-based evidence assessment to reach transparent evaluative judgements across the six DAC criteria
• Design ethical and inclusive data-collection approaches for affected populations, local partners and at-risk groups
• Review inception reports and draft evaluation reports using the OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation
• Prepare a costed management response and learning-action tracker that converts recommendations into accountable decisions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• MEAL Managers — who oversee evaluation plans, evidence quality and learning across NGO portfolios
• Programme Managers — who need evaluations to improve delivery decisions and demonstrate results to donors
• Country Directors — who commission strategic or project evaluations and approve management responses
• Grants and Compliance Managers — who must align evaluation commitments with donor agreements and reporting requirements
• Partnership Managers — who need equitable evaluation processes that include local organisations in governance and learning
• Humanitarian Response Coordinators — who need to assess programme coherence, effectiveness and sustainability in complex operating environments

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with NGO project or programme cycles, including logframes or theories of change, indicators, workplans and donor reporting. Experience contributing to a baseline, monitoring review, evaluation, assessment or after-action review is helpful, although participants do not need to have managed a formal evaluation before. Bring a laptop capable of editing Word and Excel files and, where possible, a non-confidential programme document such as a logframe or theory of change. Advanced statistics, specialist qualitative-analysis software, prior OECD employment and evaluator accreditation are not required.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led technical sessions to establish the OECD DAC framework, followed by structured workshops using a running NGO case. Participants build and test an evaluation matrix, compare qualitative and quantitative evidence options, draft terms of reference, and use a report-review checklist to identify weak claims. Facilitated group work simulates the perspectives of programme staff, local partners, affected communities, donors and evaluators. Daily feedback improves each participant’s work, and the final session converts their evaluation design into an implementation and management-response plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Applying the OECD DAC criteria to NGO programmes

• Purpose, users and timing of NGO evaluations
• The 2019 OECD DAC six-criteria framework
• Distinguishing relevance from coherence in programme assessment
• Interpreting effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability
• Programme theory of change and assumptions mapping
• Stakeholder analysis for affected populations, partners and donors
• Cross-cutting lenses for equity, gender, protection and localisation

Workshop: Participants diagnose a flawed NGO evaluation brief and produce a stakeholder map and prioritised list of decision-focused evaluation purposes.

Day 2: Designing criteria-based evaluation questions and evidence

• From DAC criteria to answerable evaluation questions
• Evaluation matrix structure and traceability
• Indicators, observable measures and evidence thresholds
• Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods evidence selection
• Sampling strategies for communities, partners and service users
• Data triangulation across monitoring, administrative and primary data
• Judgement rubrics and evaluative reasoning

Workshop: Participants build an evaluation matrix for a livelihoods and protection programme, including questions, methods, sources, sampling and rubrics.

Day 3: Methods, ethics and credible causal claims

• Contribution analysis using a theory of change
• Assessing alternative explanations and contextual factors
• Comparison groups, baselines and counterfactual limitations
• Outcome harvesting for emergent and partnership outcomes
• Key informant interviews, focus groups and document review protocols
• Informed consent, safeguarding, confidentiality and data minimisation
• Conflict-sensitive and participatory evaluation approaches

Workshop: Participants create a contribution analysis and ethical data-collection plan for a programme where outcome evidence is incomplete and stakeholder accounts conflict.

Day 4: Commissioning and assuring an external evaluation

• Terms of reference structure and evaluation scope control
• Evaluator selection criteria and technical proposal assessment
• Budgeting fieldwork, translation, accessibility and dissemination
• Evaluation governance, independence and conflict-of-interest controls
• Inception report review and methodology challenge questions
• OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation
• Draft report review for evidence, conclusions and recommendations

Workshop: Participants draft a terms-of-reference outline and use a quality checklist to review a simulated evaluator inception report and report extract.

Day 5: Using findings for accountability and programme adaptation

• Synthesising evidence into criteria-level findings
• Separating findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations
• Writing proportionate recommendations with feasibility tests
• Management response design with owners, milestones and resources
• Learning products for boards, donors, communities and field teams
• Tracking recommendation implementation and adaptive action
• Evaluation communication without overstating certainty

Workshop: Participants complete and peer-review their OECD DAC evaluation management pack, then produce a 90-day management-response and learning-action plan.

Tools & standards covered

OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria, OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation, OECD DAC Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management, OECD DAC Evaluation Principles

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions