What you will be able to do
- Decide when an evaluation is worth doing and what it should answer
- Write terms of reference that attract the right evaluators
- Judge whether proposed methods fit the questions
- Make sure findings lead to a management response and follow-up
Who it is for
- Officials who commission or manage evaluations
- M&E and planning units
- Program managers whose work is evaluated
Prerequisites
- Basic familiarity with monitoring and evaluation
Program
Why evaluate
- Accountability, learning and decision: different purposes
- Evaluation questions that matter to users
- Timing an evaluation within the program cycle
Terms of reference
- Scope, questions and criteria
- Budget, team profile and calendar
- Data the evaluators will need from you
Methods and quality
- The main families of methods, in plain terms
- Matching method to question and budget
- Reviewing inception and draft reports
Using findings
- The management response
- Communicating findings to different audiences
- Tracking what changed because of the evaluation
How we work
- Drafting terms of reference for a real or realistic evaluation
- Assessing anonymised evaluation reports for quality
- Preparing a management response in small groups