Understanding sustainable outcomes in international development: Towards a realist evaluation framework

Abstract

Billions of dollars continue to be provided in foreign aid each year. However, few scholarly studies have examined whether the outcomes from foreign aid interventions are sustained after donor funding has ceased. This paper examines current approaches to assessing this issue before arguing that a realist evaluation approach is ideally suited to understand why and how sustained outcomes are-or are not-achieved. It contributes to the existing literature by presenting three new frameworks to examine the sustainability of outcomes in international development as well as some Context-Mechanism-Outcome statements.Implications for governments, communities, households and donor/implementing organisations are discussed.

How to develop a realist programme theory using Margaret Archer’s structure–agency–culture framework: The case of adolescent accountability for sexual and reproductive health in urban resource-constrained settings

“…In Lemire et al’s (2020) review of REs published between 1997 and 2017, mechanisms were in 50 per cent of the cases presented as an individual’s psychological or behavioural response to the intervention. However, other applications of RE in development have grappled with social change, with realist evaluations of community empowerment and accountability and sustainability of outcomes as most notable examples (Feeny et al, 2022; Westhorp, 2014).…”

“…(f) Sustained change at the level of the social system or system transformation requires sufficient time, ownership and resources (Feeny et al, 2022). Capturing the sustainability of outcomes through RE has been explored.…”

“…While trust, reciprocity and empowerment are mechanisms that have been often found to explain collective action, the potential causal linkage between reflexivity, solidarity and organizational change, on one hand, and action, on the other, is less obvious (Jagosh et al, 2015;Ostrom and Walker, 2003). (f) Sustained change at the level of the social system or system transformation requires sufficient time, ownership and resources (Feeny et al, 2022). Capturing the sustainability of outcomes through RE has been explored.…”