Julia Laidlaw

This concise guide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines evaluation questions and outlines the process needed to develop them. 

Contents

This guide from the Alliance for Useful Evidence is an introduction to systematic review and the necessary steps that should be considered as a part of the process.

This guide, from the South African Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, outlines the standards by which government evaluations should take place.

Produced by the Change Agency, this resource gives a brief overview of the history, use and application of the photolanguage technique.

If you are looking to learn more and hone your skills in evaluation there has never been a better time to tap into any number of fantastic free or low cost professional development opportunities.

This wikipedia page is an example of an export trading treemap developed by the Observatory of Economic Complexity of 

This AEA365 blog, written by Lee-Anne Molony a Principal Consultant at Clear Horizon,  provides a brief overview on

Iconarray.com is an online tool for effectively communicating risk in a pictograph form.

This web-based toolkit has been developed to help program managers in New South Wales (Australia) government agencies manage evaluations (including those undertaken by internal or external evaluators, or by a combination of both). 

A webpage and blog site of Professor Ray Calabrese, from Ohio State University USA.

Written by Associate Professor of Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement at the University of Tennessee, Jenifer Mor

Composed by Michael Quinn Patton in 2002 and updated in 2013, this is a comprehensive checklist for undertaking a utilisation-focused evaluation.

This paper by the Overseas Development Institute discusses the nature and history of networks and their relation to the field of international aid and development.

Step Four in the

This is the project report on a study conducted on the collective action in capacity development by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collabo

This week we’re featuring Developmental Evaluation to

This slide show by Dr Howard White presents the use of randomized control trials (RCTs) in impact evaluation.

This is a podcast that offers an overview of the Developmental Evaluation approach according to the perspectives of an internal and an external evaluator.

The Guide to Evaluating Rural Extension is a new resource produced by The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS).

Eco Evidence is a useful tool for anyone required to review the literature on a specific topic of interest, especially those exploring cause-and-effect questions from existing literature.

Developed through a process of drafting, trialling and reviewing by members of the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation, the document sets out standards in terms of: overarching considerations; purpose, planning and design; implementation and reporting; and follow-up, use and learning.

This guide from UNICEF is divided into two parts. It begins by defining equity and its importance and relevance today.

This guide from UNICEF is divided into two parts. It begins by defining equity and its importance and relevance today.

This monitoring and evaluation handbook is designed to be used by street educators, as well as other people working with street children.

This document explores the challenges, uses and application of process tracing as a method for tracing the causal relationship of events and outcomes.

This guide from UNICEF is divided into two parts. It begins by defining equity and its importance and relevance today.

An interview with internationally recognised evaluation expert Michael Quinn Patton by Heather Britt for BetterEvaluation, April 2012.  

The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) have developed this guide to evaluating rural extension with the aim to provide comprehensive support for people involved in extention evaluations

This presentation explains a method for outcome measurement for the purpose of impact evaluation. This is the fifth in a series of lectures produced by the Poverty Action Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This guide from UNICEF is divided into two parts. It begins by defining equity and its importance and relevance today.

The Gender Analysis Tool, produced by Global Affairs Canada (Formerly Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA), can be used for examining gendered roles and f

This resource is a concise overview of the method developed by Dr Jess Dart, known as the Collaborative Outcome Reporting Technique (CORT). This method is characterized by two elements. They are:

This chapter from Capacity Development in Practice (archived

This resource is a detailed overview of study conducted by Lewis and Pattanayak (2012) on the systematic review of the literature surrounding the adoption of Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) or cleaner fuels by households in developing countries.

This document from Flinders University Research Centre for Injury Studies outlines the concept of program logic in a series of steps designed as a management and accountability

Aimed at providing guidance for Government Officials and other evaluation practitioners this manual provides an overview of techniques which do not necessarily rely on monetary valuations, namely the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA).

This publication is an analysis of six monitoring and evaluation (M&E) case studies from Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda.

Drawing on the emerging principles of Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) analysis and action, this sourcebook was developed by the World Bank to strengthen innovation systems and promote agricultural innov

This guide from UNICEF is divided into two parts. It begins by defining equity and its importance and relevance today.

This resource is a video of an interview with Dr Howard White, Executive Director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).

This case study evaluation of the Pact's Umbrella Grants Management (UGM) Program in South Africa highlights the additional benefits that the organisational capacity building assistance can provide to the effectiveness of grants.

This session was posted by Kari Cruz in the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Public Library.

Understanding and Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment - Definition, Framework and Indicators is a conceptual guide written with the intention of helping practitioners, researchers and donors design effective, measurable interventions to 

"Developmental evaluation offers social innovators an approach to collecting strategically focused information in real time, on questions that matter, in contexts where programs or initiatives are not well-tested, and where the outcomes can

The Organizational Cultural and Linguistic Competency Assessment Tool can be used to assess where organizations and individuals fall along the cultural competence spectrum, and to serve as a guide to identify training needs and areas to imp

This blog offers an example of a video that was created to communicate evaluation findings.

This slideshow takes the viewer through the process of designing an impact evaluation.

This is a module taken from the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) program.

This webpage from the South Australian Government's Learning to Learn (L2L) program offers an overview of the study and practice of the technique

This document is a draft of the Evaluation Competency Framework (ECF) used by the South African Government.

This chart drawing tool for the Apple ipad can be used to draw program logic models. Boxes and arrows of different shapes can be drawn by hand, enlarged, moved and edited easily.  The final model can then be easily emailed.

The book Time to Listen: Hearing People on the Receiving End of International Aid provides a rich overview of international aid, from the perspective of those who receive financial assistance. 

Drawing on Michael Quinn Patton's best-selling Utilization-Focused Evaluation, this book provides an overall framework and ess

The aim of this book is to explain the philosophical foundations, specific techniques, common evidentiary sources, and standards and best practices of process tracing in order to reduce the risks of making inferential errors in the analysis

This paper, from David Collier, outlines a new framework for carrying out process tracing in order to achieve greater systemisation of qualitative methods.

This background paper from Bond for International Development has been produced as part of developing the Im-Prove it! Framework.

This book, by Sue Funnell and Patricia Rogers, discusses ways of developing, representing and using programme theory and theories of change in different ways to suit the particular situation.

This report was written on a gender focused sector analysis workshop given for DACAAR teams in Afghanistan.

This template can be used when doing a Multiple Lines and Levels of Evidence analysis, to record all the lines of evidence available for each evaluation question.

This paper from Beach and Brun Pederson provides a comprehensive overview of process tracing.

This blog posted on the Capturing Development Website offers an inviting overview and discussion of Developmental Evaluation as presented in Michael Quinn Patton's (2011) book Dev

This resource, developed by the Independent Evaluation Group of The World Bank, provides a detailed description on how to prepare an evaluation Terms of Reference (ToR) and includes a checklist at the end to help users.

This audio recording and slides are from a presentation given by David D Williams at the 2011 American Evaluation Conference. 

This document is made up of a range of Evaluation Working Papers (EWP) focused on evaluation for equitable development.

Developmental evaluation (DE) is particularly useful for supporting ongoing learning in complex situations

This toolkit explores the use of telephone interviews in qualitative research.

This toolkit deals with transcribing your own, or your team’s, data. If you are considering sending your data to somebody else or an external transcribing agency, see the toolkit on outsourcing transcribing.

Developed through a process of drafting, trialling and reviewing by members of the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation, the document sets out standards in terms of: overarching considerations; purpose, planning and design; implementation and reporting; and follow-up, use and learning.

This document provides an overview of the method of process tracing and a series of examples and exercises to aid in its teaching .

This is a summary of the example of how most significant change (MSC) was used to measure “perceptions of ‘significant change’ in school cultures in South Australia” (Cornu et al 2006)

This paper was produced following a discussion between Thomas Cook and Michael Scriven held at The Evaluation Center and Western Michigan University’s Interdisciplinary PhD in Evaluation program jointly hosted Evaluation Cafe´ event on cont

A framework for understanding and assessing adaptive capacity at the local level is needed to begin to understand how it can be supported through wider development processes at both the local and national levels.

This webpage outlines the circumstances in which qualitative interview techniques are best applied for the purpose of evaluation.

Divided into four main parts this book aims to share lessons and experiences and document cross-country learning in 11 countries from bridging research and extension to fostering multi-stakeholder partnership for “research to impact.” into

This PowerPoint, developed by Kataraina Pipi, Nan Wehipeihana and Kate McKegg as part of a presentation given at the American Evaluation Association conference 2010, looks at using development evaluation to focus on the process of moving fr

This 3ie Working Paper series covers both conceptual issues related to impact evaluation and findings from specific studies or synthetic reviews.

This 3ie Working Paper series covers both conceptual issues related to impact evaluation and findings from specific studies or synthetic reviews.

This 3ie Working Paper series covers both conceptual issues related to impact evaluation and findings from specific studies or synthetic reviews.

This 3ie Working Paper series covers both conceptual issues related to impact evaluation and findings from specific studies or synthetic reviews.

The first in a series of lecture notes produced by the Poverty Action Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this presentation introduces you to the 'whys' and 'hows' of impact evaluation and when it should be used.

This presentation explores methods for identifying the right sample size for randomized evaluations so that results are defendable.

This PowerPoint presentation is an extensive guide to understanding causes in an evaluation and the difference its proper diagnosis has on the effectiveness and accuracy of an evaluation.

This resource explains the importance of knowing 'how to randomize' for the purpose of impact evaluation.

This document explains the process and benefits of meta-analysis using the comparative analysis of different treatments as an example.

This is the first of the presentations that explain the importance of knowing 'how to randomize' for the purpose of impact evaluation.

This presentation, titled Analyzing Data talks about how to deal with “problems” of non-compliance, choosing what effects to report in your study, as well as achieving external validity and cost-effectiveness.

This paper identifies a number of frameworks for positive indicator development which focus on the positive well-being of children.

This in-depth presentation introduces you to the 'whys' and 'hows' of randomised assignment and randomised sampling for evaluation as well as when it should be used and potential pitfalls.

This book offers a comprehensive exposition of modern analysis of causation.

Drawn from Michael Quinn Patton's book Utilization-focused evaluation, this paper introduces this approach to evaluat

This presentation, titled Managing threats to evaluation and data analysis talks about potential problems that can arise while undertaking impact measurement and analysis.

This page describes the reporting outcomes of an Australian Government conducted COR process on a Dugong and Marine Turtle Project in Northern Australia.

This is an example of collaborative outcomes reporting (COR) used for a natural resource management program in South Australia.

This manual details the 8-step causal criteria framework, a method that can be used to integrate information from different data sources.

This document explains the idea behind the 'Five Whys' option.

An example of a COR used for an indigenous education program in Australia. 

This short paper summarises the results of a case study analysing the role of collective action in securing property right for the poor in two Indonesian villages.

Drawing on the author's experience in rural resource management in Brazil this paper discusses the common misconceptions, potential and processes involved in Participatory Monitory and Evaluation (PM&E) 

This paper outlines the background and philosophy of

This paper describes the quantitative and qualitative research designs for survey and ethnographic methods have been combined in the evaluations of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs for the governments of Nicaragua

Monitoring and evaluation has a strategic role to play in informing policy making processes.  This document.

This PhD thesis from Irene Guijt draws on her extensive knowledge and experience in the field of rural resource management in Brazil.

Useful for practitioners and students alike this book is both theoretical and practical. Features include follow-up exercises at the end of each chapter and a utilization-focused evaluation checklist.

This document explains the history and application of the Goal Attainment Scales (GAS), providing clear examples and scale table templates.

This resource provides set of practical participative exercises to help both large and small groups, teams and boards introduce new and different ways of change the option of communicating, analysing and deciding what to do.

This short guide defines in-depth interviews, explains their advantages and disadvantages and the steps involved in their application. 

This overview of the RealWorld Evaluation book "Working Under Budget, Time, Data and Political Constraint" explains how the RealWorld Evaluation Approaches can be applied at every step of the evaluation process.

"Using projective Techniques in the Evaluation of Groups for Children of Rehabilitating Drug Addicts" is the documentation of research that discusses and applies projective techniques to identify variables and draw conclusions about the men

This report is an example of a Collaborative Outcomes Report (COR) from a community sustainability project in Victoria, Australia. It is titled "How we ran a behaviour change program and the lessons we learnt".

Essential reading for anyone seeking to use the 'Most Sign

Essential reading for anyone seeking to use the 'Most Sign

Essential reading for anyone seeking to use the 'Most Sign

This website offers a toolkit for evaluators. Available on the EuropeAid website on evaluation, it details 13 key evaluation tools explaining what, why and when they should be used and how to implement them.

This toolkit offers an extensive but not exhaustive list of engagement methods that can be applied throughout different stages of the evaluation process.

This guide, authored by Kirrin Gill, Imogen Fua and Ekong Emah for Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), provides a step by step process that supports program managers implement a participat

This resource on Capacity Indicators, is a compilation of indicators for assessing capability and effectiveness of organizations and the standards of the environment in which they must operate.

This presentation explores how methodologically defensible estimates of project effects and impacts can be identified when operating under real-world budget, time and data constraints. 

This is a concise description of ‘Performance Story’ written by Jess Dart and John Mayne for  the Sage ‘Encyclopaedia of Evaluation’.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Guide shows how to develop a results chain model.

This handbook provides guidance for conducting and managing evaluations, including a conceptual framework for thinking about evaluation as a relevant and useful program tool.

Drawing on the experience ActKnowledge and Aspen Institute had in evaluating the "Super Woman" Program, this guided example shows how to develop an

This evaluation report, written equally in English and Vietnamese, is about the Ausaid-funded My Thuan Bridge, the first bridge constructed across the Mekong River in Viet Nam.

Module 11 of a course book by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), outlines the process involved in applying different sampling techniques in research.

This guide presents information about different tools for economic evaluation.

This guide presents information about different tools for economic evaluation.

This paper reports on the approach used in a multicountry study of the poverty impact of research programs under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

This discussion brief considers the benefits of using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) to assess the impact of research on agricultural poverty.

This reading is taken from Session 8 of the online course Action Research and Evaluation Online (AREOL). It explains in detail the technique known as convergent Interviewing and how it can be used for effective data collection.

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) can be used to gain understanding of complex relationship drive situations and their contexts.

This report is a concise summary of research evaluating the suitability and availability of reproductive health services for youth in Zambia using Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Approach. 

This paper discusses the usefulness of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in weighting agricultural research results in ex-post research evaluation.

This resource examines some of the philosophy science issues related to process tracing, including the roles of causal effects and causal mechanisms in causal explanation and the logic of process tracing.

This guide facilitates the decision about how to collect research data and how to select a sample of the population of interest so that it is truly representative.

This guide from the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension is designed to support the planning of a program evaluation.

This paper from the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) explains structured interview techniques for GAO evaluators and how they should be incorporated when appropriate.

This webpage from the KnowledgeSharing Toolkit website offers a guide on how the Fishbowl Technique can be used for stakeholder engagement in a variety of settings.

An organisational assessment is a systematic process for obtaining valid information about the performance of an organisation and the factors that affect performance. It differs from other types of evaluations because the assessment focuses on the organisation as the primary unit of analysis.

The Point K Learning Center's website of free tools and resources help nonprofits