Summary of publication

Evaluation report (27 June 2017)

The evaluation report sought to address four key areas:

• one, the relevance of the Program to understand to what extent PLP3 remains meaningful to key stakeholders
• secondly the effectiveness and efficiency of the Program in achieving its objectives to-date
• thirdly the extent different elements of PLP3 will be sustainable at the end of the Program's life and fourthly possible lessons that might be useful to inform future programming decisions.

The evaluation found that while PLP's developmental leadership approach was still relevant to DFAT's interests, PLP3 was operating in a different context to previous phases and, to be highly effective, the investment needed to be re-shaped.

In terms of effectiveness and performance against result streams, the evaluation found that PLP3 had mixed results in achieving outcomes and delivering value for money.

Management response (9 October 2017)

The evaluation contains seven recommendations for consideration by DFAT. The recommendations are forward looking and intentionally focused on DFAT due to the limited time available to the conclusion of PLP3.

DFAT agrees with five of these recommendations, including that PLP3 in its current form is not an effective option and that DFAT should continue to look for opportunities to invest in developmental leadership.

We do not see enough evidence to agree with the recommendation that we should retain a reshaped PLP.

We note that PLP3 is operating in a tighter budget environment than previous phases with the current Pacific regional program reflecting new policy priorities flowing from our stepped-up engagement with the Pacific, including new leadership initiatives.

Full publication

• Independent evaluation [PDF 1.4 MB]
• Independent evaluation [Word 780 KB]
• Management response [PDF 406 KB]
• Management response [Word 111 KB]