Often when evaluators (or evaluation commissioners) think about evaluations, the first inclination is to plan primary data collection (surveys, interviews, observation etc.).  However, this overlooks data sources that may be easier and less expensive to use.  For example, analyzing monitoring data may help to answer evaluation questions and this monitoring data can be validated with primary data collection, rather than collected in entirety. 

When the evaluand (the organization, project, or program) is national or regional, the evaluation may require population level data.  This data can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive to collect.  So, in addition to the statistics agency in your country, consider other international data sets that you might be able to use.  Here are some of Khulisa’s favorite websites:

• The Early Grade Reading Barometer https://earlygradereadingbarometer.org/
• World Bank indicators which range from Agriculture to Urban Development https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
• The Sustainable Development Goals tracker https://sdg-tracker.org/
• Impact investing metrics and data https://iris.thegiin.org/performance-analytics/
• Global health data https://dhis2.org/