'Good Enough' Evaluation

This CDA Working Paper series aims to share reflections, lessons learned, and practical support for practitioners who are undertaking their own program reviews and evaluations. Evaluability Assessment, the topic of this paper, is a form of program review well known in the evaluation world but neglected in the peacebuilding field....

These guidelines provide supplementary examples and advice for programmes implementing the DCED Standard in conflict affected environments. They outline the challenges that programmes may face when implementing each of the eight elements of the Standard, and give practice guidance for results measurement in these contexts. ...

This report, “Linking Program Design and Program Evaluation: A Challenging Task,” captures the findings of a meta-review of program evaluation reports conducted by American University’s Center for Peacebuilding and Development and Search for Common Ground....

IPDET was designed to meet the needs of evaluation and audit units of many different types of organizations involved in development work. This comprehensive international program is designed to help a range of development specialists conduct significant evaluations of development interventions at the project, program, and policy levels....

Drawing on the findings of RPP regarding factors that contribute to effectiveness and impacts of peacebuilding, and on the experience of practitioners, this Working Paper offers an approach to reviewing program quality that addresses organizational needs for feedback, assessment and learning short of a formal evaluation.  In Section 2, this Working Paper offers some general introductory comments on evaluation in peacebuilding....

Recognising a need for better, tailored approaches to learning and accountability in conflict settings, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) launched an initiative to develop guidance on evaluating conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities.  The objective of this process has been to help improve evaluation practice and thereby support the broader community of experts and implementing organisations to enhance the quality of conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions....

The need for improved evaluation feedback is widely recognised by development agencies, both on grounds of accountability and learning. Greater accountability is seen as a prerequisite for continued support for development assistance within donor countries, while also being a vital component in creating robust and meaningful partnerships with countries and organisations that are recipients of aid....

A product of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the day-long Evidence Summit, which was held in December 2011 at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, and this report were made possible in part thanks to support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and USIP....

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the challenges related to the assessment of impacts of peacebuilding, notably in post-conflict situations. The first part of the paper sets the context and describes how peacebuilding, notwithstanding initial resistances, eventually became accepted into development thinking and development practices....

Assesses the quality of peacebuilding evaluation work being undertaken in a rapidly professionalizing field. The author gives several examples of good and bad practice and suggests that current evaluation practice is failing to foster accountability and learning quite as well as it could....

This series provides guidance for designing and implementing a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. This series supports and complements CRS’ global M&E standards (CRS 2009). While the global standards represent the agency’s commitment to quality M&E as a key component of program quality, this series provides ‘how to’ guidance for operationalizing this commitment in practice. ...

Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual builds on the Caritas Handbook Working for Reconciliation, and extends the material into peacebuilding training and programming. It is a resource that contains both conceptual and practical tools to help fill the peacebuilder’s toolbox....

This guide consolidates a number of ME&L approaches that have been newly developed or contextualized for fragile states and peacebuilding programs. A range of qualitative, quantitative and participatory approaches are included as well as tools for strengthening ME&L systems at the project or organization level. The approaches have come from bilateral and multilateral donors, local and international NGOs, consultants, and university groups from around the globe who were consulted in putting this guide together....

This report captures the thoughts and discussions of a meeting held from 14–16 March 2001, between staff of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) Community Peace Building and Development Project (CPBD Project) and the Nairobi Peace Initiative-Africa (NPI-Africa)....

This edition of New Routes Journal examines the state of peacebuilding evaluation. It contains contributions from Cheyanne Church, Hannah Tsadik, Christoph Spurk, Reina Neufeldt, Diana Chigas and Peter Woodrow, and others.  ...

This paper is a record of an international workshop in September 2010 on the evaluation of storytelling as a peacebuilding methodology. It includes lessons learned and useful methodological tips for evaluating the use of storytelling.  ...

24 individuals from around the world--who are actively engaged with issues related to conflict resolution and evaluation--met to discss issues relating to emerging practice and theory in conflict resolution evaluation. This paper captures the essence of the discussion around those emerging themes and further develops the issues through research and analysis.  Part 1: This paper provides information about current practices in the field and a framework through which to structure evaluation discussions. Part 2: This paper is the result of the second phase of the project. ...

Discussions of current conflicts often highlight their complexity. Under such difficult circumstances, how can international agencies that undertake programs to promote survival and/or peace determine what their impacts are? Tracing and assessing humanitarian or political attempts to lesson conflict has two dimensions....

This report has two purposes: to summarize what we have learned over the past 15 years about how to evaluate community change initiatives, and to identify strategies for enhancing the evidence base about what it takes to improve conditions in poor communities....

Marc Howard Ross provides a response to the PCIA methodological discourse from a peacebuilding perspective. He focuses on three issues: the need for more explicit concernw ith theory in the planning, organization and evaluation of interventions; the difficulties that many projects will have in making sense of the long lists and "shoulds" that characterize PICA; and the question of goals, goal revision and indicators of success in any project.  ...