Have you heard of the term ‘evaluability assessment’ before? It’s an assessment to determine how ready a program is for evaluation. All current context, practice, and theory considered. But, how do you know what is appropriate, feasible and plausible to evaluate? Khulisa finds the following framework by master evaluator Rick Davies very useful.

Evaluability assessments improve the prospects of producing feasible evaluations with useful results. As one of our clients once remarked:

“The evaluability assessment also helped a lot in framing what was possible and what was not, so it was another important exercise for us…Many organizations would just dive straight in and get to the end and say, ‘There was no data to answer this question’. Whereas Khulisa did the evaluability assessment and communicated every step of the way.”

Allan Gray Foundation’s M&E Specialist, Asgar Bhikoo

Read more here.

In his framework for thinking about evaluability, Rick places evaluation design as his Term of Reference (ToR). Program design (theory of change), data availability (monitoring and evaluation) and stakeholder demands are the three areas for evaluability assessment. The institutional context for the framework: “Is an evaluation practically possible in this context?”

Resources:

https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/themes/evaluability_assessment

Davies, R. (2013). Planning Evaluability Assessments: A Synthesis of the Literature with Recommendations.            Accessed from:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/248656/wp40-planning-eval-assessments.pdf

https://medium.com/from-the-exosphere/are-you-evaluation-ready-8ff899efc70c