Abstract:
Evaluation has been recognised as having the potential to contribute to the
effectiveness of development interventions. Using a mixed method approach involving
surveys and Q Methodology, the study examines evaluation processes and evaluation use
particularly process use in evaluations in Northern Ghana; a zone in which the framework
for monitoring and evaluation of development interventions developed by the National
Development Planning Commission has been piloted.
Evaluation capacity building, organisational learning/programme strengthening
and hybrid, emerged as perspectives on process use types in evaluation. These process
use types were influenced by the level of stakeholder involvement, the level of
information flow in the evaluation process, the amount of resources committed to the
evaluation and the organisational learning capacity of the programme. Stakeholder
participation especially at the initial stages, employment of group and learning processes,
and the competence and skills of the evaluator in facilitation emerged as the forms of
stakeholder participation required to facilitate process use. Quarterly and annual reviews
and the use of pre-departure debriefing meetings were found to be important to the use of
evaluation. Constructivist learning was found to provide significant basis for explaining
process use.
The study recommends the profiling of ongoing evaluation processes as well as
mandatory debriefing meetings in evaluation systems, and the delinking of mid-term
evaluation from the decision on the fate of programmes, as ways by which programme
evaluation can contribute to the effectiveness of programmes.