In the 1960s, policy and program evaluation was used to improve government programs and enhance monitoring. In the 1970s and 1980s, evaluation was redefined as a tool of accountability, via the budgetary process, to assess government performance against standards and objectives. Building Effective Evaluation Capacity draws upon three decades of experience and observation to derive prescriptive lessons. A wealth of illustrative case studies of good practice highlight the book. Rather than proposing a single model for evaluation capacity development, this comparative approach allows readers to apply the findings to their own circumstances. Building Effective Evaluation Capacity will be of interest to public policy specialists, economists, and students of government and comparative politics.

The perspective that informs this important book is that every evaluation of a capacity development effort should itself contribute to the capacity development effort and ultimately to the organization’s performance. This is a revolutionary idea in evaluation. With the idea have come the questions: Can it be done? And, if it is done, what will be the consequences? This book elucidates and deepens the idea, shows it can be done, and examines the consequences, both intended and unintended, of engaging in capacity development evaluation

This book: (i) reviews how evaluation can lead the change process in policy and institutional development; (ii) presents a variety of good practices and lessons learned in building up evaluation capacities; and (iii) introduces new perspectives on evaluation capacity building.

'The Road to Results: Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations' presents concepts and procedures for evaluation in a development context. It provides procedures and examples on how to set up a monitoring and evaluation system, how to conduct participatory evaluations and do social mapping, and how to construct a "rigorous" quasi-experimental design to answer an impact question. The text begins with the context of development evaluation and how it arrived where it is today. It then discusses current issues driving development evaluation, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the move from simple project evaluations to the broader understandings of complex evaluations. The topics of implementing 'Results-based Measurement and Evaluation' and constructing a 'Theory of Change' are emphasized throughout the text. Next, the authors take the reader down 'the road to results, ' presenting procedures for evaluating projects, programs, and policies by using a 'Design Matrix' to help map the process. This road includes: determining the overall approach, formulating questions, selecting designs, developing data collection instruments, choosing a sampling strategy, and planning data analysis for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations. The book also includes discussions on conducting complex evaluations, how to manage evaluations, how to present results, and ethical behavior--including principles, standards, and guidelines. The final chapter discusses the future of development evaluation. This comprehensive text is an essential tool for those involved in development evaluation.

The evaluation profession has experienced rapid growth in the past five years. Prior to 1995. there were five national evaluation organizations: the American Evnluntion Association (AEA). the Asociacion Centroamericana de Evaluacion (ACE). the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES). the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES). and the European Evaluation Society (EES). In November 1995. AEA and CES cosponsored an international evaluation conference in Vancouver, of the conference was "Evaluation for a New British Columbia. The theme Century-A Global Perspective." Delegates from 50 countries throughout Europe, Australia. New Zealand, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America attended the conference. The conference combined workshops and lecture fonnats to bring participants the most up-to-date and relevant information in a variety of sectors. Following the Vancouver conference, there was a gestation period, after which several national evaluation organizations in Europe were born (AEA/CES, Evaluation '95, On-Site Program). In 1997, EES held a conference in Stockholm. The theme of the conference was "What Works and for Whom'?" More than 280 evaluation professionals from 30 countries in Europe and throughout the world attended the conference. The conference provided a forum for academic professionals and civil servants to meet and share their experiences. Leaders emerged with goals to increase membership and to create extensive professional networks within the society (EES Newsletter, 2/97).

Today rapidly changing organizations need the best tools for driving high performance, meeting customer needs, measuring outcomes and improving service delivery. This book shows how to effectively use internal evaluation to determine a business or program's effectiveness, efficiency, economy and performance. It combines theory with the author's extensive experience to provide an indispensable resource for novice internal evaluators, experienced evaluation professionals and for managers responsible for evaluating their own programs.

This pathbreaking book provides the latest thinking on international development programs which use communication for development (C4D) to implement social change. It critiques many dominant accountability-based approaches to development and evaluation and offers an alternative holistic, participatory, mixed methods approach, using key concepts and principles that are considered more effective and appropriate for achieving long-term sustainable change. This is supported by examples and case studies from over fifteen years of research and projects undertaken by the authors.

This Second Edition celebrates 21 years of the practice of empowerment evaluation, a term first coined by David Fetterman during his presidential address for the American Evaluation Association. Since that time, this approach has altered the landscape of evaluation and has spread to a wide range of settings in more than 16 countries. In this Second Edition of Empowerment Evaluation: Knowledge and Tools for Self-Assessment, Evaluation Capacity Building, and Accountability, an outstanding group of evaluators from academia, government, nonprofits, and foundations assess how empowerment evaluation has been used in practice since the publication of the landmark 1996 edition. The book includes 10 empowerment evaluation principles, a number of models and tools to help put empowerment evaluation into practice, reflections on the history and future of the approach, and illustrative case studies from a number of different projects in a variety of diverse settings. The Second Edition offers readers the most current insights into the practice of this stakeholder-involvement approach to evaluation. “One of the greatest evaluation innovations of the past two decades has been the development of a professional and systematic approach to self-evaluation called empowerment evaluation. This book offers you the latest, cutting-edge understanding of this powerful innovation and evaluation approach. May you be inspired and empowered as you adventure through the chapters in this outstanding volume!” —Stewart I. Donaldson, President-elect, American Evaluation Association, Claremont Graduate University “This twenty year follow-up to the original provides even better and richer stories about the versatility and utility of empowerment work in most social contexts. It expands our understanding of how empowerment evaluation is foundational to any effort to improve and measure growth in any community/social environment.” —Robert Schumer, University of Minnesota “This text brings empowerment evaluation to life, and in doing so it offers all evaluators a large body of relevant concepts and tools for designing, implementing, and assessing evaluation efforts that engage, democratize, and strengthen stakeholder’s self-determination.” —Gary J. Skolits, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

"The history, development, and future directions of evaluation in various European and Asian countries are described and examined. Chapter topics include international organizations or associations that influence this global direction."--Business Horizon Evaluation of public policy has changed considerably in the past decade. This is especially true in Europe, where evaluation is now an institutional part of public sector governance, but it is also characteristic of other parts of the world. The International Atlas of Evaluation describes individual country as well as global trends and developments in the application and impact of evaluation. It also explains underlying forces affecting the contour of evaluation in different national contexts and their consequences for the diffusion of evaluation. The International Atlas of Evaluation describes and examines the history development and future directions of evaluation in twenty-two countries: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It includes chapters on international organizations or associations that heavily influence the global direction of evaluation-the European Union, the World Bank, and Development Assistance Evaluation. The volume includes a historical overview of supply and demand in relation to evaluation; shifts in institutional settings; university programs and other sources of training; descriptions of its applications in the executive and legislative branches of government; and observations on the status and future of national systems of evaluation. The Atlas explores whether those countries where evaluation "took off" some years ago are expanding its use, or whether its development has stabilized or even decreased. It explores factors supporting the development of evaluation in a number of developing countries. This volume in the Comparative Policy Analysis series is an essential tool for policy makers, government officials, and scholars interested in the contemporary status of evaluation. Jan-Eric Furubo is head of the Secretariat for Strategic Analyses in the National Audit Office in Sweden. Ray C. Rist is a senior evaluation officer with the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank. He has held senior positions in both the legislative and executive branches of the United States government as well as teaching positions at Cornell University, The John Hopkins University, and George Washington University. Rolf Sandahl is an expert in evaluation at the National Financial Management Authority in Sweden, and author of many books and articles in the area of policy instruments, results analysis, and management by results.