Evaluations of reform projects should embrace the use of novel methods to assess changes in institutional performance that are most critical to the theory of change. Given the substantial number of activities focused on improving Electrical Supply Corporation of Malawi's (ESCOM’s) operational performance, the evaluation of the Power Sector Reform Project (PSRP) leveraged an innovative process mapping method to examine several of the utility’s core business practices, helping to augment the rigor of an evaluation that relied primarily on qualitative methods. In particular, the PSRP evaluation’s use of workflow analyses aimed to provide a deeper view into the efficiency and effectiveness of critical functions at ESCOM such as billing and responding to outages, providing a basis for comparing changes over time and helping to pinpoint remaining weaknesses in key processes. However, since these analyses produced a large volume of information and data that did not significantly augment the evaluation’s results narrative, any similar methods should be applied strategically to examine outcomes most critical to the program logic. Moreover, the theory of change for PSRP rested on assumptions beyond simply increased capacity at ESCOM, including changes in corporate governance and broader incentive structures among power sector institutions. Therefore, future evaluations of reform projects should consider a range of unique methods and strategies to gather evidence on key dimensions that drive improvements in institutional performance. This includes exploring measures of organizational capacity as well as the broader political economy and sector governance context.
Lesson Learned