At the heart of the evaluation methodology is a series of ten country case studies. During the Collaborative Design Phase the following criteria were used when considering the overall balance of the country case study group:
| Country case study criteria | Are EITI interventions sustainable? |
|---|---|
| Geographic diversity | Length of time in the EITI |
| Sectoral diversity (oil, gas, mining) | Level of human development |
| State Participation | Country validation status |
| Political and fiscal decentralisation | Country size (population) |
The overall objective was to maximise the diversity of case study countries. With this in mind, the final case study group needed to include countries with geographic, population and sectoral diversity; some of which had state participation in the sector; some of which were centralised and some of which were decentralised; some of which had been in EITI for a long period of time and others that were relatively new to the EITI; some of which had high levels of human development and others which had relatively low levels. In addition to these criteria, the following three factors were also considered when selecting the final case study group:
1. Potential for evaluation activities to be supported by the National EITI Coordinator
This factor was considered as national support will be critical for accessing local stakeholders and data necessary to inform the evaluation; ensuring the results of the evaluation itself are more likely to be practically applied; and ensuring the safety of any project team personnel who travel to the case study country to gather data.
2. Availability of data
The overall group of country case studies needed to contain a critical mass of countries in which there would be enough data available to inform the overall evaluation. That said, it is also important to note that the absence of useful data is an evaluation finding in and of itself (e.g., it may indicate that the country’s EITI program is having little impact).
3. Project team country presence or experience
Most but not all of the case study countries selected also represent countries where the VQ-SC project team have either a direct presence or prior experience of working in the country. This consideration was taken into account for the simple reason that understanding country context will be critical for evaluating the EITI in case study countries, and it will make for more effective and efficient data collection and stakeholder engagement.
Based on this selection criteria, the following countries were identified as case study countries:
Deep Dive Case Studies (six countries): In these countries there will be, where possible, in person stakeholder engagement and data collection by a member of the VQ-SC project team. The project team will work with the National EITI Coordinator to carry out evaluation activities, including the interviews, most significant change, outcome harvesting and GSI methodologies.
Rapid Scan Case Studies (four countries): In these countries the case study will be based on a short desktop review of easily accessible data, and a small number of phone/online stakeholder interviews. GSI data will be applied where a sample size makes that possible.