The challenge of evaluating what is already participatory
by Ángela María Báez-Silva Arias
When we set out to evaluate Co-Inspira, a peacebuilding initiative in Colombia, we knew we were facing an unconventional challenge. This was not about assessing a traditional intervention, but something far more complex: a Systemic Action Research (SAR) process that was, in itself, already a collective exercise in knowledge generation.
How do we evaluate a process that is, by nature, an exercise in Participatory Research? How do we avoid overburdening participants with an additional layer of evaluation work when they are already leading their own knowledge-generation process? In the chapter “Lessons from practicing Inclusive Rigor in the evaluation of a peace initiative in Colombia”, published in the book “Evaluation, Democracy and Transformation”, we share how we approached this methodological challenge through an evaluative learning process guided by the Inclusive Rigor framework.
I’m genuinely delighted to share a personal take on Chapter 7: Participatory evaluation of a public transport support policy: an inclusion and transformation perspective – Jalisco (Mexico), recently published in the book Evaluation, Democracy and Transformation: Experiences of Participatory Evaluation in Latin America. I co-wrote it with Sugey Salazar and Selene Michi, and together with other colleagues we reflect on what it really means to carry out public policy evaluation using participatory approaches from within the public sector.
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Outcome Harvesting is a participatory method used to identify, formulate, analyze, and learn from the changes brought about by an intervention, especially when cause-effect relationships are complex or unknown.
In the past, people with disabilities have been left out of many aspects of life including research and evaluation. They have not usually been included in ‘mainstream’ studies about key topics such as health, education, WASH, gender empowerment, social and political participation, while other groups in populations are more routinely asked for their views and their qualitative data is collected.
At the beginning of 2024 we shared the article “
In this post, I will share some key experiences from a participatory evaluation in Ecuador, including the selection of the intervention to be evaluated and the final presentation of results and recommendations. This participatory evaluation—the first of its kind by the Ecuadorian government—assessed the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion’s Servicio de Espacios de Socialización y Encuentro para Personas Adultas Mayores (Social Interaction Spaces for Older Adults).