Evaluability assessments and choice of evaluation methods

In this Centre for Development Impact seminar, Richard Longhurst (IDS) and Sarah Mistry (BOND) will highlight the importance of evaluability assessments for development projects

They also discuss the suitability of various evaluation methods that are available to a manager.

Summary

Evaluability is a technical term not often used outside the evaluation community: of several definitions, it can be described as: ‘"the feasibility of an evaluation is assessed … it should be determined whether or not the development intervention is adequately defined and its results verifiable, and if the evaluation is the best way to answer questions posed by policy makers or stakeholders" (OECD-DAC). It is mostly a project (or programme or intervention) design issue in so far as evaluation is better incorporated into the early design stage. An assessment of evaluability should lead to a more logical choice of evaluation methods. Integral to what looks like a technical exercise, there are many important and sometimes contentious management and stakeholder issues.

About the speakers

Richard Longhurst, Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton, UK

Richard will draw on his evaluation management experience in several multilateral agencies plus literature reviews to describe the role and value of evaluability assessments and propose some practical criteria that a manager can use to choose between methods.

Discussant: Sarah Mistry, Director of Effectiveness and Learning, British Overseas NGO's for Development (BOND), London, UK.

Sarah will be enriching the discussion by adding to the seminar from the perspective of NGO's and development practitioners.

This seminar is part of the Centre for Development Impact seminar series and is open to the public.

Sources

Longhurst, R. and Mistry, S. (2015, February). 'Evaluability assessments and choice of evaluation methods'. Centre for Development Impact Seminar. Retrieved from: https://archive.ids.ac.uk/cdi/events/evaluability-assessments-and-choice-evaluation-methods.html

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