Participatory program evaluation manual – involving program stakeholders in the evaluation process

This guide from the Child Survival Technical Support Project and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was designed to support staff evaluate development programs and projects. 

"The evaluation approach presented here is particularly relevant to process evaluations in which the aim is to assess the program implementation process. This methodology has been used in programs in a number of countries and found very effective.  The evaluation methodology focuses on the analysis of program activities and strategies, which have been implemented and on the development of “lessons learned” which can be applied in the future. Given this orientation, it is particularly well suited for use in mid-term evaluations of ongoing programs." (Aubel, 1999)

Contents

• Chapter I: Introduction
• Chapter II: A Participatory Approach to Evaluation: Concepts and Alternatives
  • Functions of monitoring and evaluation
  • Blueprint or Learning Process Approach: two ways of approaching program evaluation
  • Who should be involved in conducting the evaluation?
  • Outcome evaluation or process evaluation?
  • Focus on problems or on lessons learned
• Chapter III: Planning and Conducting a Participatory Evaluation
  • Phase I: Pre–planning meetings
  • Phase II: Evaluation planning workshop
  • Phase III: Fieldwork: preparation, data collection and analysis
  • Phase IV: Workshop to formulate lessons learned
  • Phase V: Summarize evaluation results
  • Phase VI: Development of an action plan
  • Phase VII: Finalization, dissemination and discussion of the evaluation report
• Chapter IV: Conclusions Regarding the Participatory Methodology
• Chapter V: Caveats and Applications of the Methodology
• Chapter VI: Involving Communities in M & E Activities
• Chapter VII: Other References