The evaluation of international development programs: A view from the front

International program evaluation is a booming business, with important and challenging evaluations of development programs being conducted in almost e very country in the developing world. However, many U.S. domestic evaluatio n practitioners are not yet familiar with this field. Evaluators of interna tional development programs normally must operate in a very different envir onment than one would expect to find when evaluating U.S. programs. These d ifferences are discussed and a number of promising developments and methodo logical approaches are described here. I conclude by suggesting a number of areas in which a closer exchange of experiences between U.S. evaluation pr actitioners and their colleagues from developing countries could be mutuall y beneficial.