Evaluate Together

Participatory evaluation creates the opportunity to focus on individual and collective learning over the life of the project. It is a time to take stock of what we have achieved, identify what has and has not worked, and make recommendations on how we can improve our efforts in the future. At first, the term “evaluation” may intimidate people; it may evoke images of tests or examinations. Your team can help minimize any fears by involving participants in evaluation planning, implementation, and analysis while at the same time conveying an attitude of curiosity, interest, and support. It may be the first time some people have participated in a program evaluation, so it is particularly important to be sure that everyone understands the purpose of the exercise, how the evaluation will be conducted, who will be involved, and how the results will be used.

Many of the participatory evaluation techniques and tools are likely to be similar to the quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques that you used in phase three to explore the health issue. In fact, if the exploration and planning phases have been done well, the evaluation phase should be relatively easy. The emphasis in this phase, however, will be to review and reflect upon what has and has not been achieved and what we have learned. It is important to keep in mind that while you will probably be evaluating the growth in community capacity, this phase is itself a capacity-building exercise, requiring adequate attention to maximizing and building upon the experience of participants.