Evaluation Of Systems And Programmes

This manual explains the skills and steps for making a monitoring and evaluation system that functions well, organizing the people, processes and partnershipsso that they collect and use good information that can be used by decision makers and other stakeholders.

Offers advice to those involved in the design of open and distance learning courses on creating an organized system of programme evaluation. The text addresses the need for such a programme, the organization of the evaluation, the determination of priorities and programme implementation.

"The preparationof this report was financed in part through a comprehensive planning grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development under contract no. H-1701.

​ A major reason complex programs are so difficult to evaluate is that the assumptions that inspire them are poorly articulated. Stakeholders of such programs are often unclear about how the change process will unfold. Thus, it is so difficult to reasonably anticipate the early and midterm changes that need to happen in order for a longer-term goalto be reached. The lack of clarity about the “mini-steps” that must be taken to reach a long-term outcome not only makes the task of evaluating a complex initiative challenging, but reduces the likelihood that all of the important factors related to the long term goal will be addressed. Most of the resources that have attempted to address this dilemma have been popularized as theory of change or sometimes program theory approaches. Although these approaches emphasize and elaborate the sequence of changes/mini steps that lead to the long-term goal of interest and the connections between program activities and outcomes that occur at each step of the way, they do not do enough to clarify how program managers or evaluators should deal with assumptions. Assumptions, the glue that holds all the pieces together, remain abstract and far from applicable. In this book the author tackles this important assumptions theme head-on-covering a breadth of ground from the epistemology of development assumptions, to the art of making logical assumptions as well as recognizing, explicit zing and testing assumptions with in an elaborate program theory from program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Entities for evaluation are systems. The entities include projects, programmes, institutions, organizations, policies, themes, agendas, and even nation states. There is increasing awareness that the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the said entities require the systems thinking approach. However, systems thinking has an aura of complicated mathematics and complex concepts. This has caused M&E stakeholders, who are not versed in the approach, to keep their distances. This has in turn led to evaluations missing out on opportunities for increased utility. M&E could benefit from 'Systems Thinking in M&E Made Simple'. This is the motivation for this book. It is offered to all those involved in/with M&E in the various entities.

Evaluation is widely recognised as an important component for learning and improving development effectiveness. Evaluation responds to public and taxpayer demands for credible information and independent assessment of development co-operation activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation Systems are a critical component of evidence-based policymaking. This book aims to help governments and civil society organizations design, implement and use M and E information drawing from best practice experiences.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system.