The planning of the programme evaluation and respective indicators has been explained under “Evaluation Plan ”. In this chapter we will explain how to evaluate the impact of your programmes.

The programme evaluator will look at the aspects of:

• Activities performed and outputs achieved (reporting information)
• Programme impacts
  • Quantitative achievement of programme objective/purpose and outputs
  • Qualitative achievement of programme objective/purpose and outputs
• Programme and activity management (efficiency and effectiveness)

The programme evaluator should receive the monitoring data on programme plan, activities, outputs, budgets and work plans from the programme manager. Further, he/she should receive all programme information from the institution that he/she needs for the evaluation of the output and objective/purpose achievement. Additional surveys will often have to be carried out by the programme evaluator.

Any outcome that concludes that there has been sub optimum management and/or non-achievement of objectives should be discussed with the programme management. Some findings will need to be further looked at.

The evaluation of your programmes should be seen and conducted in a very constructive way. How can you further learn from your activities and continuously improve what you do if you do not know about the effect and impact of your actions? Evaluation helps you to find out what works for your beneficiaries and stakeholders and what does not. Therefore, it is an invaluable management development instrument.