“DFID (UK gov’s aid department) does not use benchmarks to assess value for money (that is, how does the programme compare to other, similar interventions) owing to the wide variations in the contexts where it works and the difficulty of collecting comparable data.”
Have you formally surveyed development economists on their thoughts on cash benchmarking? If not, this might be worthwhile before advocating for cash benchmarking?
We have not done a formal survey yet (unsure if we will, very time intensive!) so I can’t guarantee there wasn’t a bias in the economists we were able to interview and economists who are supportive of cash-benchmarking. That said, the takeaway from our conversations has been that cash-benchmarking looks promising but unproven.
There are a number of questions on cash-benchmarking that there aren’t yet clear answers to. As the DFID¹ article states, aid is spent on a wide range of objectives many of which are difficult to meaningfully benchmark against cash. We’re currently evaluating country portfolios to get a sense of what type and percentage of projects can be meaningfully benchmarked and cross-compared.
There are also a great deal of details surrounding implementation, without clear consensus either. The goal of our report is not to create the most compelling case for cash-benchmarking, but to accurately summarize the research, collect the case-studies, and hopefully arrive at a set of general recommendations for how to implement cash-benchmarking well.
My best guess is that most issues facing cash-benchmarking are very solvable, but if that turns out to be wrong then we’ll have to find something different to advocate for.
¹ Note that DFID has since been replaced with the FCDO, so the article may no longer reflect the UK government’s current position.
“DFID (UK gov’s aid department) does not use benchmarks to assess value for money (that is, how does the programme compare to other, similar interventions) owing to the wide variations in the contexts where it works and the difficulty of collecting comparable data.”
https://icai.independent.gov.uk/html-version/dfids-approach-to-value-for-money-in-programme-and-portfolio-management/
Have you formally surveyed development economists on their thoughts on cash benchmarking? If not, this might be worthwhile before advocating for cash benchmarking?
We have not done a formal survey yet (unsure if we will, very time intensive!) so I can’t guarantee there wasn’t a bias in the economists we were able to interview and economists who are supportive of cash-benchmarking. That said, the takeaway from our conversations has been that cash-benchmarking looks promising but unproven.
There are a number of questions on cash-benchmarking that there aren’t yet clear answers to. As the DFID¹ article states, aid is spent on a wide range of objectives many of which are difficult to meaningfully benchmark against cash. We’re currently evaluating country portfolios to get a sense of what type and percentage of projects can be meaningfully benchmarked and cross-compared.
There are also a great deal of details surrounding implementation, without clear consensus either. The goal of our report is not to create the most compelling case for cash-benchmarking, but to accurately summarize the research, collect the case-studies, and hopefully arrive at a set of general recommendations for how to implement cash-benchmarking well.
My best guess is that most issues facing cash-benchmarking are very solvable, but if that turns out to be wrong then we’ll have to find something different to advocate for.
¹ Note that DFID has since been replaced with the FCDO, so the article may no longer reflect the UK government’s current position.