Amine Successfully Defends PhD Dissertation

Miriam Amine has successfully defended her PhD dissertation at the RUB Social Science School on 13 November, 2024. The title of her dissertation was "Enabling Evaluation Use – An analysis to improve evaluation use for more evidence-informed decision making in development cooperation".

Improving Evidence-Informed Decision-Making in German Policy

Miriam Amine addressed the central research question of how evaluators can improve the relevance and use of evaluations for strategic and evidence-informed decision-making in German development policy. Existing research has focused on deficits and the need for action by policymakers and public institutions. Miriam Amine assumes that there is an equal need for action on the part of evaluators. They can and should focus more on enabling the use of evaluation. As a conceptual theoretical basis for analysis, this study presents a theory of change to better understand and analyze the use of evaluation. The theoretical model shows how evaluation can and should contribute to evidence-based policy-making, in particular by identifying key mechanisms of change. A combination of participant observation, key informant interviews, and literature review was used to analyze the current practice of evaluators. Evaluations are to be carried out for the purposes of accountability, learning, and steering. However, this thesis concludes that there is a natural tension between these different purposes. An evaluation can hardly address them all equally. In recent years, evaluation practitioners have developed and introduced various measures to increase the relevance and promote the use of strategic evaluations in particular. Nevertheless, the strong demand for accountability and legitimacy still shapes many activities and priorities. To better enable the use of evaluations, more targeted measures are needed to raise awareness, build interaction and mutual trust, and empower decision-makers.

Miriam Amine was supervised by Professor Dr. Dennis Dijkzeul of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV).