Tuesday March 26th, 2024
ARCO
5 key benefits of external evaluation for cooperation and development projects
ARCO Research Center is personally committed in spreading the culture of evaluation. The reason is simple: external evaluation is the only way to understand which interventions really work and why!
I have learned that success depends on knowing what works
Bill Gates
Based on the results of an external evaluation, organizations can focus their efforts – and resources – on those actions that proved most useful and effective to achieve the maximum possible impact. As a matter of fact, evaluating is fundamental for several reasons:
Evaluation allows to learn from experience, helping in identifying lessons learned and best practices, to constantly improve the impact of projects.
Evaluation allows to deepen the history behind the projects’ results, that is, it helps you understand why an intervention was successful or failed.
Evaluation allows to observe the results of the project from multiple angles, because it considers all categories of beneficiaries and stakeholders involved, deepening their different points of view.
To evaluate increases the transparency of an organization, because it demonstrates the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of its work in the eyes of financiers and stakeholders.
Evaluation allows to easily communicate the value of an intervention, because it clearly quantifies its results and its social and economic impact.
How is evaluation carried out?
Evaluating a project or programme requires a comprehensive strategy for data collection and analysis, methodologies appropriate to the objectives of the evaluation and the context of intervention. An evaluation strategy must be elaborated for each project, in order to take into account:
♦ the type of intervention;
♦ the objectives of the intervention;
♦ the types of actors involved (beneficiaries, but also stakeholders, project staff and experts);
♦ the peculiarities of local context;
♦ the resources available.
Ideally, the evaluation of a project or programme should be commissioned to a specialized external body or company, in order to guarantee a professional and objective analysis.
Although there are a number of perfectly valid reasons for an organization to decide to carry out the evaluation work internally, an external evaluation brings multiple key benefits.
5 key benefits of external evaluation
1. Experience and competence
An expert evaluator has a specific training and brings a wide-ranging experience, gain by working on different types of projects in a wide variety of contexts and by using different methodological approaches.
This competence and experience allows the evautator to identify the most effective evaluation strategy for each project, applying methods and tools that are most appropriate to accurately measure results and impact.
The skills of a experienced evalautor are essential especially when there is the need to evaluate particularly innovative or complex interventions, whose effects and impacts may not be take into sufficient account by standard approaches.
2. Objectivity
An external evaluator provides a more objective and impartial look on a project or programme, because of its indipendence from the organization that implements or finances the activities. Objectivity is essential to evaluate the real success of a project or program, as well as to allow an organization to learn correctly from its experience.
3. Credibility
Stakeholders and funding bodies tend to give greater weight to the results of an independent external evaluation, precisely because it is perceived as more impartial and rigorous. In fact, even when an organization does its best to objectively self-evaluate its performance, the conclusions may feel somewhat self-congratulatory.
4. A detached point of view
An external evaluator provides a “fresh” and detached point of view on the project and its results. After months or years of work, the project staff is often so immersed in the management of the activities that ot may not pay attention to unexpected effects that are being revealed. The external point of view cast by the evaluator may notice those changes that would otherwise go unnoticed (and therefore not measured).
5. Cost-effectiveness
An external evaluation service can be particularly convenient for small and medium-sized organizations, which often do not have sufficient resources to dedicate full-time internal staff to data collection and evaluation activities. In these cases, considering an external evaluator might prove to be the most economically advantageous option.
Read more on our M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit
Read more on ARCO’s evaluations here:
Evaluation of the call “A Braccia Aperte” for systemic multidisciplinary intervention to support special orphans
Accompanying the digitisation process of monitoring and evaluating the project for the economic and social empowerment of women in SAHEL
Evaluation of the project Prato Comunità Educante that promotes the education growth of high school students in Prato
Monitoring Information System for project WATDEV on water management and sustainable development in East Africa
Research on knowledge, attitude, social norms and practice on reproductive health rights and gender-based violence in Narok county, in Kenya
Evaluation of the project that promotes food security and climate resilience in Mozambique
Evaluation and training for the REACH OUT project staff that aims at strengthening migrants’ right to health in Italy, Greece and Malta
Final evaluation of the project that strengthens olive farmers’ resilience in Southern Lebanon
Social impact assessment of the Rapporti Corti project for socio-educational inclusion in the Navile district of Bologna
Evaluation of the Naseej project to stop gender-based violence in Iraq, Yemen, and Palestine
Evaluation of the project that promotes youth employment in Italy
Final evaluation of the ‘5G Smart School’ project for innovative teaching in Italian schools
Evaluation of the project that fosters mainstreaming migration into international cooperation and development policies
Final evaluation of a project to contrast educational poverty in Albania
Evaluation of the project PRODECREO to promote the rights and socio-occupational reintegration of women deprived of their liberty in the Dominican Republic
Final evaluation of the SOS Children’s Villages family strengthening project in Bosnia and Croatia
Evaluation of the project for the motor rehabilitation of oncological children in Turin
Evaluation of the project that aims to improve the health of the most vulnerable in Myanmar
Final evaluation of the project that fosters proximity social-health services in the informal settlements of the Province of Foggia
Food Wave, Monitoring the project that promotes sustainable food consumption among young Europeans
Spazio Donna, evaluation of the projects to foster women empowerment and contrast gender-based violence
Evaluation of the projects “M’Interesso di Te” that tackle unaccompanied foreign minors’ integration
Evaluation of psycho-socio-sanitary interventions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquake in Albania
Final evaluation of the Youth For Love project to raise young people’s awareness of gender-based violence
Multi-country mid-term evaluation of the YouthCan! programme, promoting the employability of vulnerable young people
Final evaluation of WEGO2 to support women economic empowerment contrasting intimate partner violence
Action Research for the project Do.N.N.E against gender-based violence in Central Italy
Evaluation of the project “Mentors for Resilience” to contrast educational poverty
Outcome Harvesting of the project that aims to promote stability and social enterprise in Lebanon
Annual evaluation and SROI of the programme “Nessuno Escluso” to contrast social exclusion and educational poverty in Tuscany
Evaluation of the project “Dreams and Needs” to contrast educational poverty in Italy
Mid-term evaluation of the project MilKy for the development of a sustainable dairy supply chain in Kenya
Final evaluation of Pe.R.Co.rrere: resilience of communities in Center Italy
Evaluation of the promotion campaign for Piave DOP cheese in Austria, Germany and Italy
Mid-term & final evaluation of a project to strengthen resilience to climate shocks in Kenya
Evaluation of the promotion campaign for Italian specialities in Japan
Community center, final evaluation of the social inclusion project
Mid-term evaluation of the project to contrast irregular migration in Ethiopia
Mid-term evaluation of the project for the conservation of Protected Areas in Albania
Social Impact Assessment of children’s protection programmes in Kyrgyzstan
Monitoring&Evaluation of reintegration services for drug addicts and ex-addicts in Lebanon
SROI Analysis, Albergo Etico social performance
ECO.COM: strengthening local economic development in Bolivia
Improving the sustainability in the cherry supply chain in Bulgaria and Turkey
Evaluating sustainable agricultural supply chains in Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania
Impact evaluation of the creation of a durum wheat supply chain in Ethiopia
Impact evaluation of a Rehabilitation programme in India
M&E Impact