I’m Jeff Sheldon and today I’m introducing the results of a study of 131 evaluation practitioners that I hope will inform the way you think about empowerment evaluation.
In brief, this study: 1) identified the extent of implementation fidelity to the three empowerment evaluation models; 2) described the extent to which the empowerment evaluation process were evident; 3) described the extent to which empowerment evaluation outcome principles resulted from the evaluations reported on; and 4) determined whether variation in empowerment and self-determination could be explained by: the interaction between model fidelity and percentage of steps implemented, the interaction between model fidelity and percentage of steps implemented during different evaluation phases, the process principles in evidence, the outcome principles in evidence, and by evaluator demographics.
Results indicated that evaluation practitioners implemented the three-step, 10-step, and five-tool empowerment models with fidelity. A majority reported the presence of both the six process principles (i.e., community ownership, inclusiveness, democratic participation community knowledge, evidence-based strategies, and accountability and the four outcome principles (i.e., improvement, capacity building, organizational learning and social justice). Last, the interaction between model fidelity and percentage of activities implemented explained variation in evaluation capacity. The interaction between early evaluation model fidelity and percentage of activities implemented, and mid-evaluation model fidelity and percentage of activities implemented explained variation in evaluation capacity. The inclusiveness and community knowledge process principles each explained variation in evaluation knowledge. The inclusiveness process principle alone explained variation in evaluation capacity, individual empowerment, and evaluation competence. Although not tested against the null hypothesis, variation in evaluation knowledge, individual empowerment, evaluation competence, and evaluation autonomy was explained by where evaluation practitioners lived, specifically an African country.
Hot Tips: If building evaluation capacity is important:
- Implement a high percentage of activities to ensure model fidelity especially during the mid-phase of an empowerment evaluation.
- Attend to the inclusiveness process principle to ensure everyone who wants to engage in the evaluation is included.
If building evaluation knowledge is important:
- Attend to the inclusiveness process principle to ensure everyone who wants to engage in the evaluation is included.
- Attend to the community knowledge process principle so everyone who is engaged in the evaluation can use their collective wisdom to develop evaluation tools, evaluation procedures, interpret data, etc.
If building evaluation competence is important:
- Attend to the inclusiveness process principle to ensure everyone who wants to engage in the evaluation is included.
If individual empowerment is important:
- Attend to the inclusiveness process principle to ensure everyone who wants to engage in the evaluation is included.
Rad Resource:
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