Focus the evaluation on key questions
The structure of the section is as follows:
WHAT IS ABOUT THE PURPOSE? | ||||||||||||||||||||
There are technical limitations that make it impossible to answer multiple questions or, more precisely, to provide quality answers to an excessive number of questions. This guide recommends a maximum of ten questions. How to choose the questions? - Identify questions A first version of the evaluation questions is proposed on the basis of:
In a second version, the list and wording of the evaluation questions also take into account:
- Assess the potential usefulness of answers Assuming that a question will be properly answered, it is necessary to assess the potential usefulness of the answer, by considering the following points:
If the choice of questions has to be discussed in a meeting, it may be useful to classify them in three categories of potential utility: higher, medium, lower. - Check that nothing important has been overlooked Experience has shown that it is most harmful to the quality of the evaluation if the following type of question is left out:
- Assess the feasibility of questions The feasibility (evaluability) of a question should be examined, but always after its usefulness. For this purpose the following should be consulted:
If the choice of questions has to be discussed in a meeting, it may be useful to classify them in three categories:
If a question is potentially very useful but difficult to answer, check whether a similar question would not be easier and equally useful. For example, if a question concerns a relatively distant or global impact, its feasibility could probably be improved by focusing on the immediately preceding impact in the intervention logic. - Discuss the choice of questions The choice of questions is discussed at the inception meeting. |
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REASONS FOR SELECTING A QUESTION | ||||||||||||||||||||
Because someone raised it Someone who proposes a question tends to cooperate in answering it and in accepting the conclusions.
An actor may ask a question primarily with the intention of influencing or even obstructing the action of another actor. The potential usefulness of this type of question has to be examined carefully. Because it is useful A question is particularly useful if:
Because the answer is not known A question is useless if:
It may nevertheless be useful to ask the question again if the answer requires verification. Assessing the overall intervention through a limited number of questions Focusing on questions does not prevent one from drawing conclusions on the intervention as a whole. On the contrary, it makes it possible to formulate an overall assessment which builds upon professional data collection and analysis, and avoids the risk of being superficial and impressionistic. |
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QUESTIONS AND COMPLEXITY OF EVALUATION | ||||||||||||||||||||
Why work with a limited number of questions? Focusing an evaluation on a few key questions is all the more necessary when the intervention concerned is multidimensional and when the evaluation itself is multidimensional. In that case, if one wanted to evaluate all the dimensions of the aid and all the dimensions of the evaluation, the work would be extremely costly or very superficial. It is therefore necessary to make choices. Multidimensional interventions An intervention is multidimensional if it concerns several sectors, applies several instruments, and targets several objectives, population groups and/or regions.
Multidimensional evaluations An evaluation is multidimensional if it refers to several families of evaluation criteria and covers several cross-cutting issues and/or neighbouring policies.
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