Evaluation of International Programs and Projects
(IRP 633-001 and -002)
The course addresses the issue of how to evaluate
the impact of programs and projects undertaken by international public
and non-governmental organizations. This
includes programs of development cooperation and humanitarian assistance
as well as the regular programs of organizations dealing with such diverse
functions as regime creation, monitoring of human rights, trade regulation
and elimination of weapons of mass destruction.
The course can serve to meet the Qualitative Skills requirement for the Master of Arts in International Relations.
Prof. John Mathiason's background
This course is offered by John Mathiason (jrmathia@maxwell.syr.edu), Professor of International Relations and Director of the Geneva Summer Practicum. He is also Managing Director of Associates for International Management Services, a consulting company providing advice and training to international organizations and not-for-profit institutions, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, the United Nations Office for Internal Oversight, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the AARP, Disabled People's International, the SSM Foundation of the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Family, Youth and Children of the Government of Panama, the Equal Opportunity Commission of Hong Kong, the United Nations Development Programme in Ecuador and the Club of Madrid.
He was a staff member of the United Nations Secretariat
for thirty years, starting as a technical assistance expert in evaluation
of agrarian reform programs and in his last ten years as Deputy Director
of the Division for the Advancement of Women,
responsible for managing support to negotiations leading up to the
Fourth World Conference on Women including involvement of NGO's. He
is an internationally-known specialist in evaluation aspects of results-based
management who has consulted on this with the IAEA, the United Nations
Office of Internal Oversight Services, the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the
World Meteorological Organization and the Club of Madrid, among others.
He has taught and written extensively on international governance issues,
including governing
the Internet, where he is a member of the Internet Governance Project
and effective management of international arms control verification
regimes. He is co-author of a book on the Elimination
ofWeapons of Mass Destruction: Prospects for Effective International
Verification,
published by Palgrave in March 2005 and is working on a book
entitled Invisible
Governance: International Secretariats in Global Politics published
by Kumarian Press in January, 2007. He has completed a third book entitled
Internet Governance: A New Frontier for International Institutions to
be published by Routledge in 2008. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Synopsis of the Course
Evaluation of programs and projects run by international
organizations is particularly complex, since the organizations typically
have only an indirect effect because they must work with and through
sovereign governments and other organizations. The
increasing importance of these programs for national officials as well
as international managers has increased the need to have staff well trained
in evaluation under these conditions. For
this reason it is particularly relevant for mid-career officials.
After a short introduction to basic concepts used in all evaluations, the course moves to conceptual material on the qualitative differences between international programs and national programs in terms of context. It shows how often vague objectives can be made measurable. It examines the main methodological tools used in the evaluation of international programs and presents a series of case studies of different types of evaluations: of a World Bank project, a development project implemented by a non-governmental organization, a humanitarian assistance program, a program to support intergovernmental decision-making, and a program to verify the elimination of a weapon of mass destruction. It includes a simulation of a program evaluation of a United Nations program.
For each session, participants will be given readings, will read a lecture on the subject and prepare a brief exercise based on a simulation of an evaluation that will continue for most of the course. Then, they will participate in either a live discussion or an on-line chat with the professor focusing on the main questions raised in the readings and lecture, as well in the simulation. The course project will be to design an evaluation of an international program or project, or a national project supported by an international input, that the participant knows personally.
There are ample resources on the Internet but textbook for the course is a good summaary of existing practice, particularly in the World Bank. Evaluation training material prepared by the different organizations will be used.
The course can be preceded or followed by International Public and NGO Management, which deals with strategic planning in the international public sector.
