Evaluation, equity, and the collapse of cooperation: contributions from the Global South to an urgent debate

Abstract

This essay examines the challenges that the ongoing collapse of Official Development Assistance (ODA) architecture poses for the field of international cooperation evaluation. It argues that evaluation is not a neutral technical exercise but a governance mechanism reproducing power asymmetries. In the context of aid securitization, funding cuts, and dismantling of localization commitments, the essay proposes three areas for debate: the political capture of evaluation, adverse conditions for knowledge production in the Global South, and the loss of legitimacy of the Global North. It advocates for a South–South institutional framework as a necessary condition for alternative evaluation traditions grounded in feminist, decolonial, and Buen Vivir epistemologies.