Our projects

Just published: “Methods for Evaluating Efficiency in Development Cooperation” by Markus Palenberg and Martin Noltze appeared in October 2026 as DEval Discussion Paper 4/2026. Over the past two years, the authors conducted additional research and fully updated the 2011 study “Tools and Methods for Evaluating the Efficiency of Development Interventions”, written by Markus Palenberg for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The new study replaces this earlier 2011 version. On 28 October 2026, the two authors host the session “From Ritual to Rigour: A Collaborative Dialogue on Improving Efficiency Assessment Practice” at the European Evaluation Society’s biennial conference in Lille.

In October 2026, Routledge published the open-access book “The Power of Commissioning: Enabling Democratic Evaluation”, edited by Nicoletta Stame and María Bustelo. It shows how commissioners shape what is evaluated and how evidence is used. Sari Laaksonen and Markus Palenberg contributed a chapter on how Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs partly outsourced the management of its evaluations (2016–2024). Free open-access download: the chapter and the entire book.

In mid-2026, IfDS started an in-depth analysis of a 2016 CGIAR-wide survey of former participants in capacity development activities, on behalf of the CapSha Accelerator. It is the first time these data are fully analyzed. The survey was part of the CGIAR capacity development evaluation 2016–17. A preliminary dataset with a basic analysis of the 1,863 responses was published in December 2025. The work is led by Markus Palenberg (principal investigator). Chinedu Temple Obi leads the qualitative analysis and Oyewale Abioye (IITA) the quantitative analysis. A first technical report is expected in early 2027. A cross-modality analysis will follow and be published later in 2027.

Markus Palenberg and Tonya Schütz are evaluating the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) for the European Forest Institute. The evaluation started with a Steering Committee kick-off in April 2026. It uses structured expert judgement based on a modified Delphi process to assess the programme’s performance and its positioning for Phase VII (2025–2029). The final report is due in May 2027.

In 2026, Ann Bartholomew and Markus Palenberg are conducting a tracer study for the CapSha Accelerator. It examines how CGIAR fellowships and scientific collaboration strengthen the capacities of scientists from the Global South and their CGIAR counterparts. The study draws on in-depth structured interviews with 29 former participants and 13 supervisors and collaborators. It will be completed in November 2026.

Since early 2025, Markus Palenberg has supported the management of the CGIAR Capacity Sharing Accelerator (CapSha), CGIAR’s core mechanism to mainstream good practice in capacity development. The work continues throughout 2026 and covers strategy, results reporting, the review of funding proposals, and planning for 2027–2030.

In 2025, Bina Desai and Markus Palenberg led a participatory and consultative process for the CapSha Accelerator that produced the paper “Towards common definitions and concepts for capacity development”. It proposes a common language for capacity development at the individual, organizational and system level, for use within CGIAR and with its partners. The paper is a living document. It will be updated based on the feedback received and on the work of the CapSha community of practice.

Between late 2024 and mid-2025, IfDS conducted a performance evaluation of the Nordic Development Fund (NDF). This was a comprehensive assessment of the fund’s past management, governance and results performance, its comparative advantage in the current and near-future international climate and development financing landscape, and its strategic opportunities and challenges going forward. The evaluation has informed the formulation of the fund’s next 5-year strategy 2026-30. It was implemented by Markus Palenberg (Team Leader), senior evaluator Ann Bartholomew, and IfDS fellow Andrea Deisenrieder, in close coordination with an NDF reference group.

Markus Palenberg contributed a chapter to the book “Theories of Change in Reality: Strengths, Limitations and Future Directions”, edited by Andrew Koleros, Marie-Hélène Adrien and Tony Tyrrell. Download Markus’ chapter “My perspective on theories of change” (Chapter 3) or the entire book. More information about the book and hardcopy orders are available at Taylor & Francis.

Markus Palenberg contributed to a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation in honor of John Mayne, edited by Steffen Bohni Nielsen, Sebastian Lemire and Steve Montague. Download Markus’ article on causal claims in Contribution Analysis or access all articles in this special issue.

Together with Diane Bombart, Markus Palenberg supported the CGIAR (a global research platform for a food-secure future) in 2023-24 with a study on “Lessons and Good Practices in Capacity Sharing for Development”.

Markus Palenberg led a comprehensive evaluation of Finland’s development cooperation programmes in its 10 long-term partner countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Somalia, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Nepal, Afghanistan and Ukraine). The evaluation drew on desk review, stakeholder feedback, and moderated self-assessments by the 10 country teams. Download the final synthesis report and the 10 country-level reports. The website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland also has the presentation slides of the results and three commentaries on them.

Diane Bombart evaluated ILO STATISTICS’ global project “Closing the Gender Data Gap on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work to Support Monitoring the 2030 Agenda”. The project aimed at developing, testing and diffusing a cost-efficient methodology to measure unpaid domestic and care work. The final evaluation report is available online.

Markus Palenberg led the “Review of the MFA’s support to international recruitment” for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. This review included all types of temporary and permanent recruitments of Finns into international organizations and compares Finland’s approach with those of Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

With Diane Bombart, Markus Palenberg led the “Evaluation of UNESCO’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic”. The evaluation was conducted by a mixed team with two specialists from UNESCO’s Evaluation Office.

Markus Palenberg conducted an international benchmarking study as part of the “Strategic capture of progress and learning in Irish Foreign Policy outcomes”, on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ireland.

Markus Palenberg supported the “Facilitated assessment of Finnish peace, democratization and sustainable livelihoods support in Myanmar” as evaluation specialist, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Because of the security situation in the country, the final report of this evaluation is confidential.

Markus Palenberg was deputy team leader in the “Assessment of the Response of Finnish Development Policy and Cooperation to the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

Diane Bombart and Markus Palenberg assisted the Global Evaluation Initiative in developing and formulating intuitive and easy-to-use theories of change for the initiative’s four principal business lines.

Markus Palenberg led the evaluation of Finland’s Institutional Cooperation Instrument (ICI) projects in Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, and Nepal for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Markus Palenberg supported the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) in an independent evaluation of its approach to Results-Based Management (RBM) across the entire organization. More information is available on the OSCE website for this evaluation.

Following up on the full evaluation he led in 2014, Markus Palenberg reviewed the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) in 2020. FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. The review was led by Prof. Kalame Fobissie. Download the final review report or find more information on the website of the CGIAR Advisory Services.

Together with Arne Paulson, Markus Palenberg edited The Realpolitik of Evaluation, a comprehensive book exploring the conundrum of why demand and supply of evaluation rarely intersect. You can also download a flyer about earlier books in the Comparative Policy Evaluation series.

Markus Palenberg led a comprehensive evaluation investigating the relevance and effectiveness of influencing activities in the multilateral aid channel of Finnish development policy and cooperation. Download the main evaluation report, its annex, or the slides presenting the evaluation results.

Markus Palenberg contributed a chapter to Long Term Perspectives in Evaluation: Increasing Relevance and Utility, a text book that advocates the virtues of a long-term perspective for policy evaluation and shows how evaluations can take a longer-than-usual time perspective.

Together with John Mayne and Janet Vähämäki, Markus Palenberg supported Enabel in better defining and balancing learning, steering and accountability in the context of Results Based Management (RBM) of Belgian development policy and cooperation.

As team leader, Markus Palenberg led the evaluation “How do we learn, manage and make decisions in Finland’s development policy and cooperation?” for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Markus Palenberg and Tonya Schütz assisted the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission for two consecutive years in developing and rolling out a pragmatic M&E framework that satisfies the needs of the Commission and its Member States Angola, Botswana and Namibia. The project was implemented under supervision of the Commission and was funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Linda Esche supported the work from the IfDS Office in Munich.

Brian Belcher and Markus Palenberg researched how international organizations define the terms “outcome” and “impact” using a fine-grained analysis framework with 16 definitional elements. It is apparent that there is much confusion about what the terms mean but also about the underlying concepts of how we imagine programs and policies interact with the world. The research is summarized in this paper in the American Journal of Evaluation (2018, Vol. 39, No. 4). Feel free to share, the paper has a public license.

Evaluation of GRAID, a global program of the Stockholm Resilience Centre that aims at bridging the worlds of resilience thinking and development practice. The evaluation has been conducted by Markus Palenberg and Andrea Deisenrieder, with support from Linda Esche. The final evaluation report is available for download.

In June 2018, Markus Palenberg was part of a team of experts conducting trainings on evaluation of efficiency at the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at PARTOS, the Dutch membership body for organizations working in international development. This work was supported by Linda Esche and builds on earlier work with the “efficiency lab”. Our aid efficiency pages offer a comprehensive guide on tools and methods for assessing the efficiency of aid interventions.

Evaluation of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a USD 1.5 billion global program that has been conducted between July 2017 and March 2018. As method’s lead, Markus Palenberg developed and coordinated the theory-based evaluation approach.

Evaluation of Results-Based Management (RBM) at Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), covering all intervention domains from 2008 to today. Markus Palenberg led the evaluation of RBM in SDC’s contributions to multilateral organizations and global programs, and of SDC’s quality assurance function. The final report is available for download.

Assistance to the HarvestPlus Challenge Program for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). This included amongst others managing the development of the Phase 3 Strategic Plan (2013-2018) and developing the global partnership policy. More information is available on the HarvestPlus website.

Markus Palenberg led the evaluation of Capacity Development at CGIAR, a global agricultural research program with a USD 1 billion annual funding envelope. Download the summary of the full report (published 2017) or the volumes of the complete final report: Vol I, Vol II, Vol III.

Markus Palenberg conducted a research on the delivery of products and innovations in developing countries (three articles in a special edition of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, published 2017).

Markus Palenberg developed a multi-year M&E program for the International Climate Initiative on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (2016). The implemented M&E program includes an independent evaluation function and, among other, several comprehensive mixed-method evaluations of environmental impacts.

Evaluation of the CGIAR Research Program “Forests, Trees and Agroforestry”. This evaluation represents both the first evaluation undertaken by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement of the CGIAR and the first evaluation of a CGIAR Research Program (CRP). This evaluation was led by Markus Palenberg and supported by IfDS fellow Andrea Deisenrieder. The evaluation was published in 2014.

Evaluation of Finland’s Development Policy Programmes from a Results-Based Management point of view from 2003 to 2013 for the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. IfDS manager Markus Palenberg co-led an evaluation team composed of IfDS member Diane Bombart and members of the Finnish consulting group Indufor. The evaluation report is available for download.

Global program review of the World Bank Group’s partnership with the Global Environment Facility, covering nominal commitments of USD 4 billion over a period of 22 years. IfDS members Markus Palenberg and Diane Bombart conducted this review in collaboration with IEG. The review report is available online (published 2013).

Assistance to the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) in building a global governance and service structure. IfDS also supported the development of the new Affiliation Management Strategy, as adopted by the GDLN Global Board in September 2012.

Ex-ante assessment of the governance of the planned Consortium Research Programs of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2011-2012)

Governance and management review of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2011-2012).

Research project “Tools and Methods for Evaluating the Efficiency of Development Interventions” for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), published 2011 and also available at www.aidefficiency.org. This earlier study has been replaced by the 2026 DEval study “Methods for Evaluating Efficiency in Development Cooperation” (see the first entry on this page).

Markus Palenberg was the principal investigator of the research project: “Foundations of the Results Chain Concept” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), co-funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2010). An early concept paper on this effort is available for download.

Evaluation of the regional program ‘Water Governance in the MENA region’ for Capacity Building International (InWEnt). Download the final evaluation report (published 2009).

Evaluation of the ‘Development Partnership Program’ of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). This project was implemented through GPPi. Download the summary report in English (published 2009).

Evaluation of the global partnership program ‘Generation Challenge Program’ for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Download the report and its annex (published 2008), or find more information on CGIAR’s website.

Markus Palenberg was a member of the advisory panels on development of alternative fund models and governance structure options for CGIAR as part of the CGIAR reform process (2008).

Assistance in developing guidance and tools for evaluating global and regional partnership programs for the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), as part of the technical advisory committee. Download the IEG/OECD DAC Sourcebook and the GRPP guidelines (published 2007).

Benchmarking study on international PPDP programs for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This project was implemented through GPPi. Download the research paper (published 2007).

Evaluation of the global partnership program ‘Understanding Children’s Work’ (UCW), for the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and the World Bank (2007). This project has been implemented through GPPi. The final report has not been made public.

International learning forum ‘Engaging Business in Development: Reviewing Best Practices – Exploring the Potential for Donor Collaboration’. This project was implemented through GPPi. Download the conference proceedings (published 2007).

Evaluation of the global partnership program ‘Challenge Program for Water and Food’ for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Download the report and its annex (published 2007), or find more information on CGIAR’s website.

Evaluation of the global partnership program ‘HarvestPlus Challenge Program’ for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Download the report and its annex (published 2007), or find more information on CGIAR’s website.

Evaluation of the ‘Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’ for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This project was implemented through GPPi. The evaluation report has not been made public. Download the research paper “Trends in non-financial reporting” (published 2006).