information compiled by L. Coffin
In the international rural development circles, participation is one of the words heard most often. People are talking about Participatory Action Research, Participatory Rural Appraisal, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation and the list goes on and on. This site will be dedicated to Participatory Evaluation.
Most development organization have evaluation built into their projects. Participatory Evaluation is one method to perform this task that can be a very effective option to getting to the "real" results of a program.
What is Participatory Evaluation?
Many organizations and individuals have defined participatory evaluation. The Institute of Development Studies (IDS)has compiled information about what it is and much more. The Harvard Family Research Institute has a very informative article on the theory and its roots. The Harvard Family Research Insitute has also published other informative articles to explain the theory of participatory evaluation. The Action Evaluation Project has called it empowerment evaluation and has described this variation on the theme.
How is it done? There are many guides and ideas on how to perform participatory evaluations with groups and communities. Organizations such as The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have guides (UNDP-guide 1) (UNDP-guide 2). Even Cornell professors have this type of information out there in cyberspace. Another great site is Eldis.
What have other organizations done?
In addition to all the information on what participatory evaluation is and how to do it, there is also information on the results of undertaking this method. Here are a few case studies:
And of course there are mountains of resources to use!