This evaluation aims to enhance the effectiveness of the AVID program and the contribution that volunteers make to development. It finds that AVID is making an effective and highly-visible contribution to the Australian Government's development and public diplomacy objectives. Volunteers contribute to developing the capacity of their host organisations, develop people to people links and generate goodwill for domestic and foreign diplomacy.
The evaluation also finds, however, that the program's efficiency and effectiveness can be improved. Consequently, it recommends further consolidating AVID into a single program through one volunteer stream, improving branding of the program and administrative efficiencies, focus more greatly on developing the long-term capacity of host organisations, and developing a simplified and effective performance monitoring system to promote continuous improvement of the AVID program.
Summary brief:
Full evaluation report and management response:
- Evaluation of the Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID) program [PDF 1.74mb]
- Evaluation of the Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID) program [Word 3.08mb]