ABSTRACT

This chapter explains why project evaluation needs to be included in the project plan. It describes types of evaluation, and explains ways of incorporating evaluation design into the project to guide data collection throughout the project life cycle, and enable early identification of warning signs. The chapter discusses strategies for ensuring evaluation success and making evaluation results relevant to future projects and project design. Evaluation is the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and results of programs to make judgments about the program, improve or further develop program effectiveness inform decisions about future programming, and/or increase our understanding. Process evaluation focuses on how a project is done, the implementation of strategies, the effectiveness of methods and the skill of their execution, and the overall quality of the project activities and output—what is actually produced by the project. Process evaluation can be conducted on an ongoing basis or at specific points during the project.