Evaluations beginning in the post-compact period require more complete documentation. In the rush of compact closure, key files were not shared by MCA staff and MCC staff did not have final copies of all important documents. Unfortunately, MCC’s requirement that partner governments maintain MCA document archives did not adequately fill this gap. As reported by the evaluator, despite numerous earlier requests, MCA-Namibia’s archive was only made available in July 2018, at the end of the research phase of the evaluation. At that time, the Government of Namibia could not locate MCA-Namibia’s electronic hard drives. An evaluation team member had to visit the archives and physically review boxes of documents in basement store rooms, so it is highly likely that important and relevant documents were missed. A recent review of risks facing MCC’s evaluation portfolio found that a significant fraction of evaluators were deemed to have been hired too late. While hiring could be considered “late” for a number of reasons, some certainly had to do with the challenges of inadequate documentation or data availability. For future evaluations that will be commissioned post-compact, it will be important for M&E leads to work with government partners to gather relevant documents well in advance of compact closure. MCC Country Teams should also provide more rigorous guidance about how MCAs store documents in their archives, document who will manage those archives, and how one might gain access. Without that information, the requirement to maintain such an archive risks being much less meaningful than intended.
Lesson Learned