External assessments and evaluations
IRC is regularly assessed by third parties. Here you find the corresponding reports,
Executive Summary of external evaluation IRC Business Plan 2007 to 2011
There are many positive things to report in the context of IRC’s delivery of the 2007 – 2011 Business Plan. IRC has been successful in the diversification of its funding streams as demonstrated by the achievement of signing the two large BMGF projects; but also in establishment of a project pipeline of projects from the EU, USAID and other bi-lateral funders. IRC has also met the goal of establishing two in country presences, namely in Ghana and Uganda, and has established a country focus in other regions. The country presence should be seen as the means to promote the IRC objectives of sustained service delivery and embedding of its goals in partner institutions. In addition IRC has implemented a new web based information dissemination system which provides on line technical support and has enhanced its WASH knowledge and information contribution to the sector.
However, the Evaluators conclude that the monitoring systems within the IRC itself, or within the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), are unable to track the contribution of the IRC activities towards the final outcome GILS objectives, as stated in the BP, “ to contribute to achievement of the targets for the WASH sector within the MDGs.” The objective formulation is broad and lends itself poorly to monitoring final outcome indicators such as progress towards the MDGs.
The Evaluators conclude that, based on an analysis of the (granted imperfect) monitoring data and the opinion of the majority of most stakeholders interviewed, that the effectiveness of the IRC activities has been substantial and that the business plans goals were largely delivered during 2007 to 2011.
Executive Summary of external evaluation of IRC Business Plan 2007 to 2011.pdf (395.1 kB)
Management response
Over all IRC feels pleased with the results of the evaluation and welcome the recommendations. We appreciate the positive feedback on the effectiveness of our organisation and the highly valued relevance of our programmes and activities. We share the concerns about the risk profile and sustainability of IRC over the longer term. The evaluators understandably had to make choices and that the focus in the evaluation was placed on our programmes in Ghana and Uganda, on the two projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WASHCost and TripleS. As a result the interviews with 10 stakeholders from each stakeholder group do not reflect all activities of IRC. There also are regional programmes, an innovation programme and many small to medium sized externally funded projects (EU, USAID, UNICEF etc.). Although relatively small compared to Triple-S and WASHCost, these generate a substantial wealth of new knowledge and approaches around local WASH governance which we share through our communications activities including the website, newsletter, WASH library and Questions and Answer services.
External evaluation: “IRC centre of excellence”
“IRC is perceived by sector professionals, organizations and the donors as a centre of excellence in the WASH sub-sector”. This is the main conclusion of an external review of IRC commissioned by the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands’ Ministry for Foreign Affairs. IRC invites you to read this summary and to give feedback.
