6 Tools for participatory evaluation methods
Participatory evaluation has particular merits for development management because it involves stakeholders in the evaluation process, particularly the participants or beneficiaries of a project or programme. It can involve a wide range of types of participation, such as interviews, focus groups, theatre and video tools and can happen at any point in the project cycle: its design, data collection, analysis or reporting. It can give rise to both quantitative and qualitative data.
Participatory evaluation departs from the usual route of getting an independent outsider to evaluate the project. Instead, it empowers participants and those affected by the intervention to evaluate it in terms that are meaningful to them. This is the strength of participatory evaluation, that it introduces a different conception of meaningful change and democratises knowledge generation, making the projects more downwardly accountable. Participatory evaluation also helps address power imbalances, and give a voice to people who might struggle to talk about an issue such as children or marginalised groups.
Participatory evaluation has a number of other advantages, such as developing more culturally and contextually sensitive and relevant methods and questions, establishing a more inclusive dialogue, and developing participants’ skills and confidence to collect and use data as evidence. It is useful when there are barriers to everyone taking part, or being heard, particularly around power imbalances as a result of ethnicity, wealth, age or gender.
However, there are challenges of participatory evaluation, which include:
- the need for additional (or specialist) resources and time to train and equip participant evaluators
- risks to the quality, consistency and relevance of the data collected
- careful thought to determine how the data collected by the participant evaluators will be analysed.
Participatory evaluation can use very creative methods that draw on the arts. Examples include drawing maps and pictures, taking photos, making videos, role play and theatre, thus both visual and performing arts. They can help people understand and express their thoughts and opinions in ways they are comfortable with, and can provide a conduit for feelings and emotions that they might not have acknowledged.