Guideline: Focusing the evaluation design

Guidelines 

Planning the M&E action

Definition

Planning in advance where the evaluation is headed and what steps will be taken; process is iterative (i.e., it continues until a focused approach is found to answer evaluation questions with methods that stakeholders agree will be useful, feasible, ethical, and accurate); evaluation questions and methods might be adjusted to achieve an optimal match that facilitates use by primary users.

 

Role

Provides investment in quality; increases the chances that the evaluation will succeed by identifying procedures that are practical, politically viable, and cost effective; failure to plan thoroughly can be self-defeating, leading to an evaluation that might become impractical or useless; when stakeholders agree on a design focus, it is used throughout the evaluation process to keep the project on track.

 

Activities

o       Meeting with stakeholders to clarify the real intent or purpose of the evaluation;

o       Learning which persons are in a position to actually use the findings, then orienting the plan to meet their needs;

o       Understanding how the evaluation results are to be used;

o       Writing explicit evaluation questions to be answered;

o       Describing practical methods for sampling, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, and judgment;

o       Preparing a written protocol or agreement that summarizes the evaluation procedures, with clear roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders; and

o       Revising parts or all of the evaluation plan when critical circumstances change.   

 

 

See also   Guidelines: How to conduct a useful M&E action