Thank you for engaging in this lively discussion and for sharing your experiences with evaluations that helped in developing capacities of evaluands and of beneficiaries.
As evaluators, we know the difference it makes to truly engage with the evaluands and the programme team and how this influences the results and use of the evaluation. As Anis Ben Younes rightly said, evaluation in such cases becomes a learning process for all those who are involved, a process of sharing knowledge for the benefit of improving our actions, programmes and policies.
The examples shared from Costa Rica and Kenya, where the capacity development and participatory aspects of evaluations are central, are proving how this approach is instrumental in supporting ownership on the evaluation at institutional level. The experiences presented in using participatory methodologies such as outcome harvesting, resource mapping and institutional mapping helped communities in improving the use of their assets and knowledge.
Certainly, there are still challenges to address, such as the lack of capacities of evaluators, the cases when evaluands and project officers refuse to get involved in the evaluation and evaluators that work in isolation and do not engage.
Feel free to keep sharing your lessons and experiences on developing capacities of evaluands and other actors through the evaluation process.
As mentioned, we are working on a capacity development evaluation framework that we are going to pilot in upcoming evaluations to see how this can be applied to evaluation of different types such as project, strategic, thematic and country programme evaluations.
Please note that we will draft a summary of all contributions and resources shared by participants and circulate it through the Community.
RE: What can evaluations do in terms of capacity development?
Dear EvalForward members,
Thank you for engaging in this lively discussion and for sharing your experiences with evaluations that helped in developing capacities of evaluands and of beneficiaries.
As evaluators, we know the difference it makes to truly engage with the evaluands and the programme team and how this influences the results and use of the evaluation. As Anis Ben Younes rightly said, evaluation in such cases becomes a learning process for all those who are involved, a process of sharing knowledge for the benefit of improving our actions, programmes and policies.
The examples shared from Costa Rica and Kenya, where the capacity development and participatory aspects of evaluations are central, are proving how this approach is instrumental in supporting ownership on the evaluation at institutional level. The experiences presented in using participatory methodologies such as outcome harvesting, resource mapping and institutional mapping helped communities in improving the use of their assets and knowledge.
Certainly, there are still challenges to address, such as the lack of capacities of evaluators, the cases when evaluands and project officers refuse to get involved in the evaluation and evaluators that work in isolation and do not engage.
Feel free to keep sharing your lessons and experiences on developing capacities of evaluands and other actors through the evaluation process.
As mentioned, we are working on a capacity development evaluation framework that we are going to pilot in upcoming evaluations to see how this can be applied to evaluation of different types such as project, strategic, thematic and country programme evaluations.
Please note that we will draft a summary of all contributions and resources shared by participants and circulate it through the Community.
Luisa and Lavinia