Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

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Abstract:

While evaluators have considered accountability pressures and examined the consequences of performance measurement for organizations, they have paid less attention to the accountability relationship in which their work is used. Drawing on theoretical literature and empirical data, this article shows how these accountability relationships drive the use of evaluative frameworks, like performance measurement, and shape the consequences for the organizations involved.The article argues that in settings permeated by accountability concerns, evaluators need to understand these accountability relationships that so significantly shape their work, especially if they hope to improve accountability systems or create the space for evaluation to serve other important purposes.This article provides evaluators with a set of questions and points of analysis that they can use to examine accountability relationships and expand what is possible for evaluation in settings where accountability is the dominant concern.