Knowledge Bank

Approaches

Despite the absence of a common agreement of what defines an ‘Evaluation Approach’, the Observatory uses the term ‘Evaluation Approach’, broadly as an evaluation world-view or lens – embedded into the evaluation by way of organization, method, technique, or theory, being used to accompany or shape the structure of an evaluation.

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• Ex-Post/Summative Evaluations

  Ex-post assessment is done after the completion of the project to examine whether the intended project outcomes have been achieved or not, providing information on the project’s effectiveness. It emphasizes critical thinking, judgement and common sense and helps decide whether to continue or end a given project.

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• Ex-Ante Evaluation

  Ex-ante assessment predicts the impact of a program before its implementation, and it essentially helps to find out implications for the program if implemented. This approach supports the decision-making process and improves program quality by optimizing the use of resources through an iterative process.

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• Formative Evaluation

  The Formative Evaluation approach focuses on carrying out the evaluation at the early stages of the program to provide program practitioners with feedback about the ongoing project’s functioning, helping them improve the program and assess program readiness for summative assessments.

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• Most Significant Change

  Most Significant Change Technique (MSC) is a qualitative participatory technique that focuses on capturing impact by asking simple questions to program beneficiaries and collecting significant change stories from the field. The most impactful ones are then systematically chosen to assess the program’s impact.

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• Needs Analysis

  Need Analysis is a systematic method of collecting and analyzing data to determine the needs of an affected population against an agreed standard with respect to their current situation and involves an examination of the causes to set the right priorities for the future.

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• Network Evaluation

  Network Evaluation is a research technique that helps better understand the relationship between individuals, groups, and systems that facilitate knowledge learning by throwing light on the structure of informal relationships across the Network

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• Outcome Evaluation

  An Outcome Evaluation examines the program’s intended outcomes by investigating the extent and direction in which the outcomes change for program participants. It also assesses how larger outcomes contribute to changes in development conditions.

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• Outcome Mapping

  Outcome mapping (OM) is an evolving methodology for planning, monitoring, and evaluating development initiatives that aim to bring about social change and assess the program’s contribution to influence changes in behaviour, actions, or relationships.

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• Process Evaluation

  A Process Evaluation approach examines whether the program’s activities are operating as planned to serve the targeted population, focussing qualitatively on the processes and the internal program dynamics of the program. It is carried out simultaneously with the project to help evaluators make informed recommendations to improve project management.

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• Social Return on Investment

  Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a framework for measuring social and environmental values and accounting for economical cost benefits in the project’s decision-making. It is about creating a change by looking beyond numbers and giving importance to ‘Social Value’ over ‘Money’.

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• Value for Money Evaluation

  A Value for Money Evaluation (VfM) approach assesses money spent on the project, alongside what has been delivered by the project(outputs) and its achievements(outcomes). It uses the 4E VfM framework of Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness and Equity to assess the program’s impact.

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• RAPID Outcome Assessment

  Overseas Development Institute (ODI) developed this approach to assess the impact of research and policy on development. It is defined as a “learning methodology to assess and map the contribution of a project’s actions on a particular change in policy or the policy environment.”

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• Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

  What is Participatory Rural Appraisal? The father of Participatory Rural Appraisal Techniques, Robert Chambers has referred to PRA as a 'growing family of approaches and methods' which aim to 'enable local people to share, enhance and analyse their ...

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