The Development Assessment Criteria (DAC) criteria are used to identify evaluation questions, with each criterion providing a different perspective on the intervention, its implementation, and its results.
Most development organizations (national, international, and UN agencies) use the DAC criteria which is adopted from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The criteria were first developed in 1991 and have since become a cornerstone of evaluation practice and are widely used, beyond the DAC.
The criteria play a normative role. Together they describe the desired attributes of interventions: all interventions should be relevant to the context, coherent with other interventions, achieve their objectives, deliver results in an efficient way, and have positive impacts that last.
The criteria are used in evaluation to:
Support accountability, including the provision of information to the public.
Support learning, through generating and feeding back findings and lessons.
Monitoring and results management.
Strategic planning and intervention design.
Projects are evaluated on these standardized criteria. All criteria can be used to evaluate before, during, or after an intervention.
1. Relevance
Relevance is the extent to which the intervention objectives and design respond to beneficiaries’ global, country, and partner/institution needs, policies, and priorities, and continue to do so if circumstances change. (OECD)
Relevance seeks to find out whether the intervention is doing the right things.
Examples of possible questions:
Are we doing the right things? What is the relevance or significance of the intervention regarding local and national requirements and priorities?
To what extent does the intervention comply with the development policy and planning of the recipient country or partner government?
How important is the intervention for the target group and subgroups (e.g. women and youth), and to what extent does it address their needs and interests?
2. Effectiveness
Effectiveness is the extent to which the intervention achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any differential results across groups. (OECD)
Effectiveness is also used as an aggregate measure of (or judgment about) the merit or worth of an activity, i.e. the extent to which an intervention has attained, or is expected to attain, its major relevant objectives efficiently in a sustainable fashion and with a positive institutional developmental impact.
Effectiveness is concerned with whether the intervention is achieving its objectives.
Examples of possible questions:
To what extent have the objectives been achieved or not?
To what extent will the objectives of the intervention be (most likely) achieved?
To what extent is the target group reached?
Effectiveness is measured based on the defined outputs and outcomes.
3. Efficiency
Efficiency is the extent to which the intervention delivers, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way. (OECD)
Examples of possible questions:
Are the objectives achieved in a cost-efficient manner by the development intervention?
How big is the efficiency or utilization ratio of the utilized resources?
Is the relationship between input of resources and results achieved appropriate and justifiable?
What is the cost-benefit ratio?
To what extent have individual resources been used economically?
Are there any alternatives for achieving the same results with less inputs/funds?
4. Impact
Impact is the extent to which the intervention has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects. (OECD)
Examples of possible questions:
What has happened as a result of the program or project?
What real difference has the activity made to the beneficiaries?
How many people have been affected?
Does the development intervention contribute to the achievement of overall development objectives (overall goal)?
What is or are the impact(s)/effects of the intervention compared to the total situation of the target group or those affected: positive and negative, intended and unintended effects?
What are the technical, economic, social, cultural, political, ecological effects? disaggregated by sex or other relevant social groups, such as minorities.
5. Sustainability
The extent to which the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue. (OECD) Sustainability assesses the probability of continued long-term benefits.
Possible evaluation questions:
Are the positive effects sustainable?
How is the sustainability or the continuity of the intervention and its effects to be assessed?
To what extent will activities, results, and effects be expected to continue after donor intervention has ended?
To what extent does the intervention reflect on and take into account factors which, by experience, have a major influence on sustainability like e.g. economic, ecological, social, and cultural aspects?
How self-supporting in particular is the assisted local counterpart?
6. Coherence
Coherence is the compatibility of the intervention with other interventions in a country, sector or institution. (OECD)
Examples for possible questions:
How was coordination (coherence) achieved, and/or why was there a lack in coherence?
What political factors were specifically responsible for the coordination of assistance or relief items or what made the latter more difficult?
Is coherence necessary or feasible in the present situation at all?
