In astrotourism, it is less about studying the stars and more about creating opportunities for people. Initiatives in this area are not designed to achieve scientific objectives, but rather to enhance human development. They are best understood as “social interventions”: initiatives, policies, or programmes that aim to improve social welfare outcomes by addressing challenges related to livelihoods, local economies, education, culture, wellbeing, or community development.

Some diverse examples of social interventions include humanitarian relief after natural disasters; HIV prevention campaigns; ‘sin’ taxes on cigarettes; reductions in classroom sizes to improve education outcomes; and after-school clubs to improve childhood school performance and reduce delinquency. 

Evaluation is much talked about across fields of social intervention. Everyone seems to mean something slightly different. There is no consensus on a technical definition. 

The Gates Foundation uses the following definition:

Evaluation is the systematic, objective assessment of an ongoing or completed intervention, project, policy, program, or partnership. Evaluation is best used to answer questions about what actions work best to achieve outcomes, how and why they are or are not achieved, what the unintended consequences have been, and what needs to be adjusted to improve execution.

There are two main types of evaluation, focused on different questions listed in the definition above:

• Impact (aka Summative) Evaluation, which focuses on whether and to what extent target outcomes were achieved (i.e. measuring impact)

• Process (aka Formative) Evaluation, which focuses on how, for whom and under what conditions a project works

Evaluation is typically paired with monitoring (hence the phrase “Monitoring and Evaluation”, sometimes abbreviated to “M&E” ).

Monitoring focuses on determining how a project was delivered and whether this deviated from its original plan or design. Monitoring can be used to identify obstacles to implementation (e.g. under-budgeting; the need for more staff training etc.) and ensure accountability (e.g. reduce misallocation of funds or even deliberate corruption in aid organisations).

The results of both kinds of evaluation (impact and process) and of project monitoring are combined to provide lessons for future projects and improve practice over time.

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