Knowledge Bank

Formative Evaluation

November 30, -0001, Evaluation Observatory

Formative evaluations are carried out 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(Phillips et al., 2018).

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Here’s an analogy: A chef wishes to cook a delicious soup for special guests at his restaurant. To ensure that the soup has developed just the right mix of flavours, the chef tastes the soup and adds new ingredients, if necessary, helping the chef make the required changes in its formative stages to realise the intended outcomes.

The purpose of formative evaluation is to improve project implementation, develop capacity and monitor performance (Formative Evaluation (Summary, n.d.)

For a broad overview

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• Formative Evaluation: A Step-by-Step Guide and Resources for Evaluating Program Implementation and Early Outcomes

  Prepared by James Bell Associates, this resource serves as an introductory guide to Formative Evaluations for practitioners in human services. This toolkit covers a) An understanding of formative evaluations, (b) Meeting the preconditions to conduct a Formative Evaluation and (c) The steps to design and conduct a Formative Evaluation. The resource also includes relevant case studies and a glossary of key terms.

Case Study

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• Human Resources: Inception Report: Formative Evaluation of the UNFPA Innovation Initiative

  Designed and Developed by UNFPA Evaluation Office, this case study illustrates the application of the formative evaluation concepts to the assessment of the UNFPA Innovation Initiative - aimed at generating a cultural shift within UNFPA encouraging its staff to generate, fund and implement innovative ideas”. It explains the evaluation methodology, deliverables and resource requirements in conducting the formative evaluation.

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• Child Rights: Formative Evaluation of Middle East Children’s Institute (MECI) And M&E System

  Columbia SIPA Teams worked with Middle East Children’s Institute programs(MECI) in Palestine in conducting Formative evaluations to guide improvements in its After-School Program, the Women’s Empowerment Program, and the University Scholarship in Palestine, alongside evaluating its Strategy. It contains a literature review, the objectives and methodologies, overall findings and recommendations.

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• Health: Formative Evaluation

  From the Asian Development Bank, this resource may be used as a sample case study to understand the broad structure of Formative Evaluations in strengthening rural primary health service delivery.

Videos

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• Formative Evaluation of The UNICEF Wash Regional & Country Programming Strategies

  Published by Asian Development Bank, this video highlights lessons from a formative evaluation of UNICEF’s WASH programs in the East Asia Pacific Islands.

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• What Have We Learned from The Formative Evaluations?

  Developed by International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, this video resource describes findings from formative evaluations of health-based interventions in Pakistan, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Toolkits

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• Formative Evaluation Toolbox

  Developed by the Evaluation Toolbox, this resource provides tools for various categories of formative evaluation at various stages of the project during pre-project and during project implementation stages – including ‘Proactive’, ‘Clarificative’, ‘Interactive’ and ‘Monitoring’ assessments. It also helps practitioners understand the relevant tools used at different stages of formative assessments – including Logframe Matrix, Stakeholder Analysis, Focus Group Discussions, Questionnaires and Budget Tracking