Evaluation Methods and Tools for Development Practice

The world of development is now an evidence-based world. Practitioners are using observable and measurable indicators to design and evaluate development programs. This course provides the student with those tools and methods used in development work. The tools will include practical work in using surveys, interviews (key informant and data generation types), focus groups, and use of secondary sources (archival data), direct observation, and comparative case studies for program design and evaluation. Emphasis will be on both the consumer role (accurately interpreting and reporting on studies using data generated by these tools) as well as actually using the tools in program design.

There are no pre-requisites for the course. The first weeks are spent introducing the principles of program design, in essence, applied social science research. This involves developing a theory of change, i.e., what is the social condition that your program wishes to change or improve, and what are the causal variables that are reflected in the activities of the program. Other names for this are a logical model or program theory. Students then learn and practice how to use data-generation tools (above) to develop measurable indicators for program activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts.