ABSTRACT
Service research is generally either descriptive or comparative in nature. Descriptive studies provide information on programatic features such as the number and characteristics of clients served, whereas comparative studies are aimed at showing whether or not a particular programmatic input has a desired effect. Such service oriented research is essentially evaluative in nature and the framework summarizes approaches to evaluation which have been applied in the past, particularly in the area of family planning. Process evaluation is essentially a managerially oriented assessment designed to improve program operations by measuring direct program outputs. Outcome evaluation measures the effectiveness of program outputs among users of services. The common feature is that the evaluation focuses on users of services rather than the population as a whole, and that service statistics provide the data for the outcome evaluation. Impact evaluation measures the effect of the program on the general population. Cost-effectiveness is a measure of program costs in relation to outputs, outcome, and impact.
