Helpful resources for Programme Evaluation

You will find on this page useful resources for your evaluation practice.

Definitions and glossaries

Do you want to tell your colleagues about evaluation, or check basic concepts? You can link to the introduction of our e-learning course on evaluation which is free to use and disseminate. Also, among our favorites, odi's¹ ten things to know about evaluation should be in your dissemination toolkit!

Evaluation uses words and concepts that are often ambivalent, and it is always useful to be clear on the definitions before starting a new project. For this, you can rely on the MEANS glossary, of which an extract (77 terms out of 300) is available below. The full glossary is also available for download.

Other interesting glossaries include:

The OECD's Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results-Based Management (2010) is a must-have if you are working in the realm of humanitarian aid or international development. Besides, it is available in English, French and Spanish, which is more than helpful in an international context. Be careful that outside the development world, different definitions or concepts may apply.

Still if you're working in the realm of humanitarian aid, the glossary of the IFRC's² Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) guide (p.79) is quite comprehensive as well.

If you are into participative approaches, we also appreciate UNICEF's glossary in their Participatory Approaches methodological brief (p.22)

Guides and manuals

There are many guides and manuals out there, below is a very short selection that you may find useful in specific contexts:

If you're working for or with the European Commission, be sure to keep the EC's Better Regulation Toolbox around. It includes guidance for both Impact Assessment and Evaluation.

Also useful at the EC or national level, if you are likely to evaluate pieces of legislation or non-spending interventions, we've made a guide in 2011, " Evaluating Legislation and Non-spending Interventions in the Area of Information Society and Media" (2011). Volume II is a toolbox which can be useful for every evaluation.

The above-mentioned IFRC guide is more oriented towards the development of an M&E system, but still, it contains many tips that will be valuable when you'll work in a context of emergency.

Still in the same context, if you need to design and monitor an impact evaluation, you may check this 3ie's³ working paper: What methods may be used in impact evaluations of humanitarian assistance? (2014)

Impact evaluation is a topic on its own, but if you'd like to go further on this one, you should check Elliot Stern's Impact Evaluation guide for Commissioners and Managers (2015), which is very clear and well explicated.

Also, the Evaluation Guidelines of the Directorate of Internal Oversight, at the Council of Europe, are useful to understand how an international organisation has integrated evaluation into its internal procedures. Take a look at the Quality Assurance checklists in the appendix.

Preparing and managing an evaluation often means dealing with stakeholders. Make the best out of your workshops by using moderation techniques, such as those described in this SeedForChange guide.

Find more references in our Bibliography on Evaluation (also available in French).

Websites

Better Evaluation is kind of Evaluation's wikipedia. There are numerous resources available on this site, and they are usually reliable.

On some specific issues, ILAC's⁴ Briefs and Working Papers are a good source of information too.

The World Bank's Impact Blog is a good source for news (and ideas) on how to do an evaluation

Evaluation societies also have websites which you can check:

the European Evaluation Society's website includes interesting resources such as standards and online handbooks

the American Evaluation Society has many available resources, especially in its library

Degeval's website (the German Evaluation society) also hosts a few publications in English, including an interesting competency framework for evaluators

Restricted access resources

Credentials are needed to access these resources. if you lost them. Resources available in French and English.

Intervention Logic and Problem Definition Theoretical references, examples and tools to help you define the problem at stake and (re)construct the intervention logic.

Monitoring and evaluation Theoretical references, examples and tools to help you build your monitoring and evaluation system.

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Other examples, additional needs?