Following up on the agency response to evaluation findings is an essential part of supporting use. However, this is often a management responsibility rather than an evaluators. You can work with managers to provide a list of options for follow-up as part of the final report. Indeed, time should be built into the evaluation budget to account for support beyond report delivery. There are a range of options that can be used:
Options
- Annual reviews: reviewing major evaluation findings and conclusions based on evaluation studies completed during the preceding year.
- Conference Co-presentations: Conference Co-presentations take place when evaluators and evaluation commissioners or users jointly present findings or discussions about processes from an evaluation.
- Data use calendar: guides the collection of data and reporting requirements, as well as ensuring that analysis and evaluation data is actively used.
- Policy briefings: Providing evaluation findings and lessons learned in an accessible manner for target audiences which can be followed up by management and staff.
- Recommendations tracking: keeping a transparent record of the responses to and action from recommendations.
- Social Learning: focusing on how people learn through social interactions, such as modelling, making connections, sharing experiences and resources, collaboration and self-organization.
Resources
Guides
- Evaluation Policy of UNDP: the purpose of the policy is to establish a common institutional basis for the UNDP evaluation function. See especially the section on ‘Use’
- UNESCO Guidelines for follow-up to evaluation findings: this four-page paper provides an overview to UNESCO procedures for evaluation follow up and a template for managers to detail their action plans in response to evaluation findings
Blogs
- 52 weeks of BetterEvaluation: Week 23: Tips for delivering negative results: This blog by Jessica Sinclair Taylor contains advice for how to best deliver bad news to stakeholders.
