MCC should ensure that the evaluation team include the appropriate sector expertise to assess the key aspects of the project logic. The absence of a land tenure expert resulted in insufficient assessment of land tenure outcomes, which were clearly included in the project logic and evaluation design. First, the initial draft of the survey questionnaire omitted land tenure and governance questions. After consultations with MCC, the evaluator revised the questionnaire to include those questions, but those were not asked to the Di Control Group due to a programming error. As a result, the evaluation lacked a valid counterfactual on land tenure, transfers and land based investments. It’s likely that a land tenure expert involved in the survey design and implementation and data analysis would have prevented such omissions. MCC is addressing this lesson by requiring land tenure and agricultural experts as key personnel in any evaluations with land or agricultural benefit streams. MCC has also asked for quality control plans related to computer-assisted personal interviewing testing and programming as part of the evaluation design report.
Lesson Learned