This report presents the results of an evaluation of Netherlands' bilateral development cooperation with India. It is one of a series of country evaluation studies the Operations Review Unit (IOV in Dutch) embarked upon in 1991. In addition to India, Mali and Tanzania were also selected for such a study. One of the main arguments for undertaking country evaluations was the possibility to assess the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of Netherlands' aid in a wider organisational framework. The studies were carried out with a uniform objective and similar key questions. They may vary in content, however, due to differences between the countries and the country programmes.
The India study covers the period 1960-1992 because the Netherlands has established a more structural aid relationship with India in the beginning of the 1960's. Within this period the evaluation particularly focuses on recent years, i.e. the period 1980-1992. In includes project aid and non-project aid made available through the regular bilateral programme and covers about 80% of all disbursements in the years 1980-1992. A major object of study concerns the organisation and management of the programme.
The report consists of seven chapters, while the main conclusions, recommendations and the summary of the report are presented in advance of these chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the organisation of the study, including the methodological approach. Chapter 2 provides the Indian context in which the aid programme was established. It consists of a description of some of India's main social and economic features, trends in India's economic policy since its first five-year plan (1950), its macro-economic performance and the importance of foreign aid. Chapter 3 describes the general objectives of Netherlands' development aid since the 1960s, the organisation of this aid within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the major features of the development programme with India in the period 1980-1992. Chapter 4 identifies the main factors that have played a role in the set-up of the programme and chapter 5 investigates the management of the so-called project cycle in the development programme. Finally, the results of non-project aid and project aid are presented in chapters 6 and 7 respectively.