Evaluation as LearningThis is a featured page

Evaluation is often perceived as externally driven, in the case of development NGOs as something that donors want to be done – for reasons of accountability. While accountability is one purpose, evaluations in fact present unique learning opportunities. Evaluations build on good planning and a functioning monitoring system and are meant to inform decision-making. In recent years, evaluation of peacebuilding engagement has received increasing attention, for instance in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This section will present the key aspects of evaluation in an introductory presentation and then gather resources that explain evaluation planning, management and utilization in detail. It has to be mentioned here, that evaluation should already be considered in the planning stages of a project or programme.

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  • Evaluation as Learning. An introduction. This lecture provides an overview of what evaluation is and what evaluation in peacebuilding means.
  • Church, Cheyanne/Rogers, Mark M., Designing for Results. Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Programs (Chapters 7-11), Search for Common Ground/United States Institute of Peace/Alliance for Peacebuilding, 2006. <http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilr/ilt_manualpage.html> (accessed 14 April 2009). Church and Rogers provide a comprehensive and very practical overview of what steps need to be taken for an evaluation of peacebuilding interventions.
  • Lederach, John Paul/Neufeldt, Reina/Culbertson, Hal, Reflective Peacebuilding. A Planning, Monitoring, and Learning Toolkit (Chapter 12: Evaluation as Learning), Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Catholic Relief Services East Asia Regional Office, 2007, pp. 63-66. <http://kroc.nd.edu/sites/default/file/reflective_peacebuilding.pdf> (accessed 14 April 2009). Lederach et. al. put their focus on evaluation as learning. It does not provide a guide for how to conduct evaluations, but instead offers suggestions for enhancing the learning potential of evaluations.
  • Lewis, Helen, Evaluation and Assessment of Interventions, in: Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess (eds.), Beyond Intractability, Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: September 2004 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/evaluation/> (accessed 24 April 2009). This articles gives a good and brief overview current evaluation practice in the field of peacebuilding, including a brief description of several evaluation approaches.
  • Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC), Guidance on evaluating conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities (Working draft for application period), OECD 2008. <http://www.oecd.org/secure/pdfDocument/0,2834,en_21571361_34047972_39774574_1_1_1_1,00.pdf > (accessed 14 April 2009) This OECD-DAC guidance working draft is the result of an ongoing collaborative project by the OECD DAC networks on Development Evaluation and on Conflict, Peace and Deveopment Co-Operation. The guidance, that went through a one-year application process in 2008, aims to provide directions to those undertaking the evaluation of conflict prevention and peacebuilding projects. The main section takes the reader through the key elements of the evaluation process.
  • Elliott, Michael/d'Estrée, Tamra Pearson/Kaufman, Sanda, Evaluation as a Tool for Reflection, in: Burgess, Guy/Burgess, Heidi, Beyond Intractability. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: September 2003 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/Evaluation_Reflection/> (accessed 16 June 2009). The authors focus on evaluation as a learning opportunity. They describe how evaluations can be conducted and used and also discuss challenges for evaluation in situations of intractable conflict.
  • Renee Garfinkel, What Works? Evaluating Interfaith Dialogue Programs, Special Report 123, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC: July 2004. <http://usip.forumone.com/files/resources/sr123.pdf> (accessed 26 August 2009) Interfaith dialogue is an increasingly popular response to religious conflict and religious nationalism. While practitioners employ a variety of approaches, the underlying purpose of all interfaith dialogue projects is to enhance religious tolerance and promote
    peaceful coexistence. Despite the increasing popularity of interfaith dialogue, rarely are these dialogue projects subjected to rigorous efforts to evaluate their impact and effectiveness. To help address this gap, the Religion and Peacemaking Initiative of the U.S. Institute of Peace commissioned a study that resulted in this publication.

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  • The report. In this activity, participants will take on the roles of 1) evaluators presenting a report and 2) the project team that receives the report.
Suggestion for a process for planning evaluations for concrete peacebuilding engagements. Throughout this process, a number of decisions have to be taken. These sessions will focus on 5 key decisions:
1. What do we want to learn from the evaluation?
2. Who will the audience of the evaluation report be?
3. What type of evaluation is suitable for the kind of learning we aspire?
4. What evaluation approach is most appropriate for the kind of learning we aspire?
5. Who should do the evaluation?




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