Making Evaluations Matter: A Practical Guide for Evaluators
Simone van Vugt; Seerp Wigboldus; Bob Williams; Jim Woodhill (contrib.)
Wageningen: Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University & Research Centre (2011), 118 pp.
Contains figures, tables, bibliogr. pp. 105-110, glossary pp. 111-113, index
ISBN 978-90-8585-971-0
"Too often evaluations are shelved, with very little done to bring about change within organisations. This guide will explain how you can make your evaluations more useful. It will help you to better understand some conceptual issues and appreciate how evaluations contribute to empowering stakeholders. This practical guide brings together evaluation concepts, methods and tools that work well in the field and presents core principles for guiding evaluations that matter; provides a framework for designing and facilitating evaluations; shows you how to get your primary intended users and other key stakeholders to contribute effectively to the evaluation process; offers ideas for turning evaluations into learning processes. Making evaluations matter to the primary intended users of development programmes is at the heart of this book – a must-read for evaluators, commissioners, monitoring and evaluation officers and key stakeholders within the international development sector." (Back cover)
1 Core principles for guiding evaluations that matter, 13
2 Suggested steps for designing and facilitating evaluations that matter, 23
3 Getting stakeholders to contribute successfully, 61
4 Turning evaluation into a learning process, 79
5 Thinking through the possible influences and consequences of evaluation on change processes, 91
Conclusion: Evaluations matter, 97
Annex A: Examples of (Learning) Purposes, Assessment Questions, Users and Uses of an Evaluation for a Food Security Initiative, 99
Annex B: Contrasts between Traditional Evaluation and Complexity-Sensitive Developmental Evaluation, 101
2 Suggested steps for designing and facilitating evaluations that matter, 23
3 Getting stakeholders to contribute successfully, 61
4 Turning evaluation into a learning process, 79
5 Thinking through the possible influences and consequences of evaluation on change processes, 91
Conclusion: Evaluations matter, 97
Annex A: Examples of (Learning) Purposes, Assessment Questions, Users and Uses of an Evaluation for a Food Security Initiative, 99
Annex B: Contrasts between Traditional Evaluation and Complexity-Sensitive Developmental Evaluation, 101
