Objectives diagram and effect diagram

How should an objectives or an effect diagram be used?

How should the logically constructed objectives diagram and the effect diagram be constituted?


• How are the diagrams used?
• Description and analysis of the strategy
• Definition of the themes for evaluation questions
• How are the findings presented?
• Notes and reports of the organisation stage
• Final report
• Verbal presentations
• What are the preconditions for the establishment of an objectives diagram and an effect diagram?
• Human resources and working arrangement
• Travelling expenses
• Computer devices

Objectives diagrams and effect diagrams are a crucial tool in the organisation stage of the evaluation. They play many roles:

• The objectives provide a description of the strategy (geographic) or the policies (sector-based, thematic)
• The diagrams determine themes for evaluation questions
• They present the strengths and weaknesses of the objectives system to be achieved or the intended effects system in an informative and transparent way

Objectives diagrams demonstrate a synthesis of the geographical strategy displayed in the official documentation. When the evaluation scope covers one or more strategy papers (geographical) or strategic policies (sector-based, thematic), it is recommended that one diagram per document is created (unless there is a logical continuity in the strategy or the policy).

They illustrate the objectives/effects classification, from the overall objective/impact to projects and programmes scheduled to implement the objective/effects. The logically reconstructed objectives diagram and the effect diagram are informative means to reflect upon:

• Its internal coherence
• The relevance of the objectives/effects to the context (the European Union's overall strategy for country assistance, the main actors' themes or sectors and objectives, the activity's scope and objectives of other donors)
• The appropriateness of the means dedicated to carry out these objectives/effects

The faithfully reconstructed objectives diagram displays the objectives system and provides the evaluator with a first approach to the strategy and policies inner quality. Indeed, an unclear, incomplete and incoherent diagram means a lack of relevance in the forthcoming planning or a lack of faithfulness to the initial objectives system.

These analyses must be presented in the notes and reports of the evaluation organisation stage. They must also appear as an abstract in the final report.

The previous analyses reveal questions about:

• The faithfulness of the strategy or the policies to the European Union's overall objectives for its country assistance
• The relevance of the strategy and policies to the country's situation, the evaluation's sector or theme, and the main actors' policies (governments in particular)
• The need for complementarities and synergies with other donors
• The consequences of a lack of coherence in the objectives system
• The relevance of the means to the objectives

These questions result in the determination of a range of themes which could be investigated during the following stages of the evaluation, particularly through evaluation questions.

However, evaluation questions cannot be automatically deduced from these analyses. Other questions can emerge during the organisation stage, formulated by the main strategy implementation operators (since they are the most well-informed actors about the problems encountered during the planning and the implementation stages). However, the number of evaluation questions is limited and additional questions would have to be the subject of a selection process.

Objectives diagrams are established during the organisation stage, where reports and notes should be provided. At this stage, the diagram's construction must be precisely described.

For the faithfully reconstructed objectives diagram, the sources of the objectives/effects (quotations, references to the original documentation) must be provided. References to documentation, interviews and expertise must support the objectives' location in the diagram, and the assumptions developed during the construction of the diagram must be explained.

The process through which the logically reconstructed objectives diagram has been extracted from the faithfully reconstructed objectives diagram must also be clearly explained.

Diagrams should be incorporated into the final report because they are not only stages in the development of the wording of evaluation questions, but also an illustration of a possible analysis of the evaluation strategy.

The report may include a short presentation of the diagrams, in addition to a full explanation included in the annexes.

The evaluation team will need to present its work (methodology and findings) to different types of people (the evaluation reference group, participants in the debriefing session). The objectives diagram or the effect diagram are very efficient tools for this purpose, providing that they are readable without being over-simplistic.

To do so, a main diagram, and several sub-diagrams developing fundamental sections of the main diagram, should be presented, each of them not exceeding 20 items.

Observation :
The number of working days mainly depends on the scope of the evaluation, and thus on the number of programmes to study and diagrams to construct.

Strategy papers have been drafted under the responsibility of the head office (DG RELEX or DG DEV). The head office is also responsible for the planning stage. EuropeAid is in charge of the project drafting. This implies that the majority of the useful documentation (the whole baseline documentation) can be found in Brussels. This situation may devolve to Delegations in the future whose responsibilities in this area will grow.

The current needs (2004) in travelling expenses to Brussels

These elements (and the corresponding budgetary components) will have to be reviewed when the Delegations take broader responsibilities for strategy development (2007).

Most of the graphic problems can be addressed with software such as MS PowerPoint.