FORMATIVE ACTIVITY 34: Project evaluation

Answer all the questions below	US242914 SO4 AC3 [Total: 18]
In your own words distinguish between project evaluation and impact evaluation, citing examples to support your understanding. (6)
Do you agree that an evaluation gap exists in public sector projects? Why, or why not? (2)
What are government, state-owned companies, departments, and municipalities doing to ensure that project evaluation and project impact evaluation take place? (2)
Read the following mini case study and then answer the questions that follow Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Mexico In the 1990s, the government of Mexico launched an innovative conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme called Progresa. Its objectives were to provide poor households with short-term income support and to create incentives to investments in childrens human capital, primarily by providing cash transfers to mothers in poor households, conditional to their children regularly attending school and visiting a health centre. From the beginning, the government considered that it was essential to monitor and evaluate the programme. The programmes officials contracted a group of researchers to design an impact evaluation and build it into the programme expansion at the same time that it was rolled out successively to the participating communities. The 2000 presidential election led to a change of party in power, but in 2001, Progresa's external evaluators presented their findings to the newly elected administration. The results of the programme were impressive: they showed that the programme was well targeted to the poor and had engendered promising changes in households' human capital. Shultz (2004) found that the programme significantly improved school enrolment by an average of 0.7 additional years of schooling. Gertler (2004) found that the incidence of illness in children decreased by 23 percent, while adults reported a 19 percent reduction in the number of sick or disability days. The successful evaluation of the Progresa programme and its attending projects contributed to rapid adoption of CCTs around the world, as well as Mexicos adoption of legislation requiring all social projects to be evaluated." (Adapted from Gertler, Martinez, Premand, Rawlings and Vermeersch, 2011)
The programme was large-scale and included multiple project phases in order to operationalise Progress. In your opinion, why did the government consider that it was essential to monitor and evaluate the programme from the beginning? Refer to Gertler, Martinez, Premand, Rawlings and Vermeerschs (2011) key factors on deciding whether to evaluate as provided above. (4)
Discuss the following statement, "Impact evaluation can determine not only the intended effects but also unintended effects". What positive, unintended effects were attributable to the programme in the case study? (4)