Manage an evaluation or evaluation system

Managing an evaluation involves agreeing on how decisions will be made for each cluster of the evaluation (from framing an evaluation to reporting and supporting use) and ensuring they are implemented well.

As you work through the process of planning and implementing the evaluation, you may need to revisit and revise the choices you have made.

In this section

  • Understand and engage stakeholders

    Identify who has an interest in the evaluation in addition to the primary intended users, and whose interests need to be prioritised and why. Ensure their engagement throughout the evaluation.

  • Establish decision making processes

    Specify how decisions will be made about the evaluation—who will provide advice, who will make recommendations, and who will make the actual decisions.

  • Decide who will conduct the evaluation

    Clarify who will actually undertake the evaluation. This might include people who are involved in what is being evaluated (such as implementers, clients and community members), an internal or external evaluator, or some combination of these.

  • Determine and secure resources

    Identify what resources (time, money, expertise, equipment, etc.) will be needed and available for the evaluation. Consider both internal resources (e.g. staff time) and external resources (e.g. participants' time to attend meetings to provide feedback).

  • Develop a design for the evaluation

    An evaluation design sets out how data will be collected and analysed in terms of the methods used and the research design.

  • Determine what constitutes high quality evaluation

    For any evaluation, there needs to be clarity about what will be considered a quality and ethical evaluation.

  • Document management processes and agreements

    Develop any formal documents needed, including a brief and a Terms of Reference.

  • Develop planning documents for the evaluation or M&E system

    Develop a formal plan which sets out how an individual evaluation or a range of M&E activities will be undertaken.

  • Review evaluation quality

    Evaluating the quality of an evaluation can be done before it begins (reviewing the plan) or during or after the evaluation (reviewing the evaluation products or processes). This is sometimes called a quality review or meta-evaluation.

  • Strengthen evaluation capacity

    Choose ways of building on and developing capacity for managing, undertaking and/or using evaluation, which might involve human capital (knowledge and skills), organisational capital (such as technical and administrative infrastructure) and social capital (supportive networks).

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