Process Use of Programme Evaluation in Three Evaluation Contexts in Northern Ghana

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.