The power and dysfunctions of evaluation systems in international organisations

Evaluations do not take place in a vacuum. Evaluation systems are embedded within organizations; they shape and are shaped by organizational norms, processes, and behaviors. In International Organizations, evaluation systems are ubiquitous. Yet, little is known about how they “function,” namely how they are used, how they contribute to organizational performance, and how they influence actors’ behaviors. These are empirical questions that cannot be solved without a robust theoretical grounding, which is currently absent from the existing evaluation literature. This article seeks to bridge some of the identified gaps by weaving together insights from evaluation theory and international organization sociology into a unifying framework of factors. The article then demonstrates how the framework can be used to empirically study the relative power and dysfunction of evaluation systems within International Organizations. A forthcoming connected contribution will illustrate such empirical inquiry through the case of the World Bank’s project-level evaluation system.