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| | | Title | Guidelines for Initiating and Managing Evaluations, Guide No. 7 | | Author | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Subject | Evaluation | | Publisher | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Number of Pages | 11 pages | | Language | English | | Geographical Coverage | Africa | | Keywords | Monitoring and Evaluation, knowledge sharing and dissemination | | Abstract | Evaluation is increasingly becoming popular among development practitioners, especially in advancing the result agenda in Africa. Underpinned by two key objectives of learning and accountability for utilization of resources and results, evaluation plays a significant role at all stages of the project cycle. It is intended to equip decision makers, managers and other stakeholders with credible and timely information to make informed decisions. Therefore, African governments and their development partners are expected to facilitate the adoption of evaluation at all stages of development project implementation and demonstrate the impacts of evaluation on their strategic choices and policy interventions. However, the challenges faced by implementing entities are not only a result of inadequate financial resources or lack of ‘space' for participation in the evaluation process, but more often than not, stakeholders are encouraged to fully participate and own the process but owing to the lack of the requisite knowledge, understanding and skills to initiate and manage the evaluation process, many of the stakeholders are unable or are reluctant to match-up to the task. Therefore, in line with the knowledge sharing objective of the African Community of Practice On Managing for Development Results (AfCoP-MfDR), these guidelines seek to articulate in a logical and sequential manner the steps involved in commissioning and managing evaluations. Based on information from secondary sources, this knowledge product presents four key steps and the tools required at each of them. The four steps are 1) initiating the evaluation, 2) preparation, 3) managing the evaluation and 4) using the evaluation findings. In conclusion, the guidelines emphasize the importance of improving the knowledge and skills of key stakeholders both from the demand and the supply side to ensure that they are able to generate and use quality, relevant and fit-for-purpose evaluation information for the day-to-day management and strategic decision making. This knowledge product points to the need for a joint effort among Pan African institutions and associations like the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) to support the development and implementation of harmonized and tailor-made evaluation training and technical support for African countries, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other institutions. Further, it advocates for a sustained interest and investment in evaluation to ensure availability of adequate funding and an increased use of evaluation findings in decision making across the continent. | | Copyright Holder | African Community of Practice (AfCoP) | | Copyright URL | http://afrik4r.org/ | | Filesize | 542478 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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