Pathfinder International Tool Series: Monitoring and Evaluation "A case study is a story about something unique, special, or interesting stories can be about individuals, organizations, processes, programs, neighborhoods, institutions, and even events. The case study gives the story behind the result by capturing what happened to bring it about, and can be a good opportunity to highlight project success, or to bring attention to a particular challenge or difficulty in a project."

Pathfinder International Tool Series Monitoring and Evaluation - 2 "In-depth interviewing is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation. They are useful when you want detailed information about thoughts and behaviors or want to explore new issues in depth. Interviews are often used to provide context to other data (such as outcome data), offering a more complete picture of what happened in the program and why."

"This Guide has been written to help project managers and M&E staff improve the quality of M&E in IFAD-supported projects. The Guide focuses on how M&E can support project management and engage project stakeholders in understanding project progress, learning from achievements and problems, and agreeing on how to improve both strategy and operations."

Pathfinder International Tool Series Monitoring and Evaluation - 3 "Mystery clients are trained people (usually community members) who visit program facilities in the assumed role of clients, and then report (by completing a survey or through an interview) on their experience. They might be used in an effort to avoid the bias in the service delivery process that often results from having service transactions observed. Mystery clients can also serve to gather a sufficient number of observations of service transactions when the actual volume of service visits is low."

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Series 2009 Authors: Hallie Preskill and Nathalie Jones

"AusGuide provides guidance on preparing and implementing high quality program strategies and initiatives. It supports the management of AusAID development programs and Australian Government initiatives delivered under those programs." This guide integrates monitoring and evaluation as part of the planning and implementation of program strategies and initiatives.

Basic Guide Handouts designed as Introduction to evaluation for those without technical backgrounds

"This document provides guidance toward basic planning and implementation of an outcomes-based evaluation process (also called outcomes evaluation) in nonprofit organizations. This document provides basic guidance -- particularly to small nonprofits with very limited resources. NOTE: This free, basic, on-line guide makes occasional references to certain pages in the United Way of America's book, Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach (1996). That United Way book is an excellent resource! However, it can be somewhat overwhelming for nonprofits that have very limited resources. This free on-line guide (that are reading now) can help nonprofits carry out their own basic outcomes evaluation planning. This on-line guide can also help small nonprofits to make the most of that United Way book -- however, you do not have to have that United Way book in order to carry out your own basic outcomes evaluation plan by using this on-line guide. "

"This document provides guidance toward planning and implementing an evaluation process for for-profit or nonprofit programs -- there are many kinds of evaluations that can be applied to programs, for example, goals-based, process-based, outcomes-based, etc. ... Note that the concept of program evaluation can include a wide variety of methods to evaluate many aspects of programs in nonprofit or for-profit organizations. There are numerous books and other materials that provide in-depth analysis of evaluations, their designs, methods, combination of methods and techniques of analysis. However, personnel do not have to be experts in these topics to carry out a useful program evaluation. The "20-80" rule applies here, that 20% of effort generates 80% of the needed results. It's better to do what might turn out to be an average effort at evaluation than to do no evaluation at all. (Besides, if you resort to bringing in an evaluation consultant, you should be a smart consumer. Far too many program evaluations generate information that is either impractical or irrelevant -- if the information is understood at all.) This document orients personnel to the nature of program evaluation and how it can be carried out in a realistic and practical fashion."

"APRIL 2005 ” Family Health International has released an important new resource for improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children. The guide, Conducting a Participatory Situation Analysis of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Guidelines and Tools, is a powerful tool that builds on experiences from FHI's work in the developing world. Conducting a situation analysis is a complex and delicate process. It gathers and analyzes information to guide planning and action. Done properly, it can help build consensus and among key stakeholders. Collecting data that is not directly linked to specific programs helps identify strengths and weaknesses in national and sub-national responses. Because this resource is focused on children, it features a special emphasis on ethical considerations for information-gathering. The six-chapter, 210-page guide offers sample consent forms, baseline surveys and interview guides, which can be adapted for local use. It was funded by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Reliefe through the U.S. Agency for International Development. It was written by Renee DeMarco with FHI's OVC Team. The accompanying French edition, released in April 2006, was prepared by the nongovernmental organization Plan International."

Learning Objectives: Identify purposes of evaluation Differentiate between evaluation input, output, quality, and outcomes Identify output and outcome measures logically linked to program indicators Plan appropriate output and outcome measures.

Wilson-Grau, R. Customising definitions of outputs, outcomes, and impact. Deals with using the definitions of outputs, outcomes, and impacts as indicated in the OECD glossary and customizing them for one’s own purposes.

"This guidebook presents an innovative and thoroughly tested model for organizational self-assessment. The tools and tips in Enhancing Organizational Performance go beyond measuring the impact of programs, products, and services. They integrate techniques of formative assessment, in which the assessment team becomes involved in helping its organization become more effective in meeting its goals. The tools and techniques are flexible, and the model can be adapted to any type or size of organization. Worksheets and hands-on exercises are included. Enhancing Organizational Performance will be of use to any organization that is initiating a process of self-assessment, internal change, or strategic planning. It will particularly appeal to heads and staff of research organizations, university administrators, staff of research-granting agencies, and academics and professionals in organizational development and evaluation."

"This handbook seeks to provide project managers and policy analysts with the tools needed for evaluating project impact. It is aimed at readers with a general knowledge of statistics."

"A practical guide to evaluation methods for lecturers. Includes: • Recipe pages - Step by step guides to the time, resources and process involved in different evaluation methods, with hints relating to the stages of the process and links to related pages. • Information pages - The recipes are linked to information pages that aim to provide some basic practical suggestions and advice, applicable to a range of different evaluation methods. • Preparation pages - Sections have been included to provide a framework to the planning and preparation process involved prior to carrying out an evaluation. These aim to encourage you to think, in more detail, about who the evaluation is for, what you are going to be evaluating and how best you might carry out such an evaluation study. • Tasting, Refining and Presentation pages - The final sections of the cookbook encourage you to think of your evaluation study as an ongoing process used to make improvements in teaching and learning. Guidance is provided to encourage you to reflect on ways in which you can act on your results and/or write up your findings in an evaluation report. • Serving Suggestions - The serving suggestions sections are included to demonstrate some of the cookbook evaluation methods put into practice. These short exemplars outline the aims and objectives of various evaluation studies, the main findings from these studies and some reflections on these findings."

"One specific form of social research -- evaluation research -- is of particular interest here. The Introduction to Evaluation Research presents an overview of what evaluation is and how it differs from social research generally. We also introduce several evaluation models to give you some perspective on the evaluation endeavor. Evaluation should not be considered in a vacuum. Here, we consider evaluation as embedded within a larger Planning-Evaluation Cycle. Evaluation can be a threatening activity. Many groups and organizations struggle with how to build a good evaluation capability into their everyday activities and procedures. This is essentially an organizational culture issue. Here we consider some of the issues a group or organization needs to address in order to develop an evaluation culture that works in their context."

"This document aims to present a user-friendly approach to the process of evaluation. It is particularly targeted at those involved in programs working towards the introduction of human rights concepts and values in educational curricula and teaching practices, who are initiating an evaluation for the first time. It contains practical suggestions on how to effectively organize the evaluation of such programs in order to learn from the work implemented so far."

As British Columbia’s Minister of State for Women’s Equality, I am pleased to present the Guide to Best Practices in Gender Analysis to ministries across government. This guide outlines the process and value of incorporating gender analysis in policy development, and will assist ministries in ensuring that new policies and programs do not disadvantage women. Although women and men have more opportunities and choices than they had in the past, statistics show that there are still significant differences in their roles and responsibilities: women earn an average of 72 cents for every dollar a man earns; women continue to carry most of the responsibility for their families; research into women’s health issues lags far behind men’s; and domestic violence is an issue many women continue to live with. Because of these differences, government policies and programs do not affect women and men exactly the same way. As a result, policies, programs and legislation that do not take gender into account may not have the desired outcome and can be very costly for government and society. Gender analysis assists in evaluating the potential impacts of programs and policies on both women and men, and is an integral part of developing government policies and programs. Gender analysis can: • heighten analysts’ awareness and skills in addressing complex social and economic issues; • help create a more open and transparent policy process by challenging hidden assumptions; • help ensure that the abstract goals of a policy consider the people who will be affected; • help ensure that policies can be effectively implemented; • inform responsible decision-making; and • help ensure more efficient and effective use of government resources by improving predictability of outcomes and accuracy of costings and projections. This guide outlines the steps used in developing policy, and shows how gender analysis can be integrated at each phase of the policy development cycle. It will also help government meet its New Era commitments to accountability, sound fiscal management and openness and transparency in the public policy process.

This ‘Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results’ is an updated edition of the 2002 edition of ‘Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluation for Results’1. It seeks to address new directions in planning, monitoring and evaluation in the context of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) corporate strategic plan, the requirements of the UNDP evaluation policy approved by the Executive Board in 2006 and the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) ‘Standards for Evaluation in the UN System’2. The updated Handbook also incorporates information recommended by key users of the Handbook during various workshops held by UNDP units.

This guide includes:  Introduction to the kit  Introduction to evaluating  What is evaluation?  Why evaluate?  How to evaluate?  Human aspects of evaluation; and Appendices as follows:  Evaluation goals and objectives chart  Methodology chart  Evaluation timetable chart  Ongoing evaluation report  Five-step model