My interests include food systems, support for culinary enjoyment rather than turning meals into formulae, global health enhancement, policy and strategy and everyone who deprecates reductive, reactive actions.
My contributions
How are development projects affecting the environment and how do we evaluate this impact?
DiscussionHow are we progressing in SDG evaluation?
DiscussionNeutrality-impartiality-independence. At which stage of the evaluation is each concept important?
DiscussionRacism in the field of evaluation
DiscussionThe farmer as a key participant of M&E: lessons and experiences from Participatory M&E systems
DiscussionUsing synthesis and meta-analysis to make the most of evaluative evidence: what is your experience?
DiscussionRecurring errors in public policies and major projects: contributions and solutions from evaluation
DiscussionIs this really an output? Addressing terminology differences between evaluators and project managers
Discussion
Lal - Manavado
Consultant Independent analyst/synthesistDear Ibtissem,
Using the results of evaluation to guide policy formulation and strategy design, requires such results to be as sound as possible. As you point out, conduct of an evaluation and its successful management call for two different types of skill sets. Entrusting both tasks to a single individual has several disadvantages like the level of required competence in one of those fields, personal bias, etc.
As for your first question, competent management of evaluation is important in all types of evaluations. It is particularly invaluable in policy and strategy evaluation and in those cases where the evaluation can influence strategic decisions on implementing/changing or stopping projects or activities such as pre-project and "mid-term" evaluations.
Effective management of evaluations entails facilitating the work of evaluators, ensuring the collection of relevant facts, and fostering dialogue to refine templates and methodologies. The manager's role, therefore, can be viewed as that of a facilitator, complementing the evaluation process.
On the other hand, a competent evaluator may need a big volume of relevant background information to ascertain the environmental consequences of a policy, strategy, operation or a field endeavour. A holistic view from a capable manager can guide and assist evaluators in their tasks, enriching the evaluation process.
Depending on their respective competence, interaction between a manager and an evaluator could broaden the horizon of each other resulting in better evaluation.
Cheers!
Lal.