Monitoring and Evaluation in Russia's International Development Assistance Program

Russia’s Approach to Official Development Assistance and Its Contribution to the SDGs

“…Moreover, in the light of scarce budgetary resources, monitoring external and internal governmental policy implementation could raise Russia's accountability standards. That is why elaborating institutional models and establishing a national M&E system is essential, especially for external policies such as ODA (Boehmer and Zaytsev 2018). Moreover, as was mentioned above, M&E systems help to trace the progress of "systemic change" and evaluate the "scope" of engagement to fight global poverty.…”

“…This could take the form of an annual institutionalised report to the government and the public in the form of an easily understood brochure. These reports should incorporate simple indicators on what has been done on the global and country levels (Boehmer and Zaytsev 2018). They should be measurable and the data should be readily available.…”

“…Shortly after the adoption of the 2014 Presidential Decree, the MoF was given full authority to develop a national ODA M&E system. However, given that Russia does not have a consolidated development assistance budget that is under the responsibility of a single line ministry, developing a national M&E system would inevitably involve cross-ministerial coordination and agreement on the key parameters (Boehmer and Zaytsev 2018).…”

“…Although the 2014 Presidential Decree contained a long list of priorities, the MoF was unable to reach an agreement within the government on the purpose of the future M&E system. Pressure to make progress, however, continued to mount, with parliament expecting the Russian government-and specifically the MoF-to provide annual progress updates (Boehmer and Zaytsev 2018).…”