ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on assessment—that is, on how project results are judged. Assessment focuses on illuminating the relationship between arrangements and outcomes in a project. It has two fundamental aspects: Monitoring—sometimes called formative assessment—tracks progress during project implementation; and Evaluation—sometimes referred to as summative assessment—makes judgments about project outcomes and impacts, especially as these concern stakeholders. Context-based assessment starts with clarity of project outcomes. If these are vague, then it will be difficult or impossible to discover whether they have been achieved. Most project assessment efforts use some type of time-series design, where data are collected at specified intervals. Project ethnography would use anthropology to examine the core processes of development itself, not just the details of project implementation or policy formulation. Most anthropologists working directly with projects are paid to design or to manage them, not to write ethnographies.
