Evaluations that make a difference: stories around the world

RODRÍGUEZ BILELLA, PABLO

Sao Paulo

Conferencia; 3rd International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities; 2013

United Nations Development Program

Stories are a powerful way of communicating information and ideas. They engage us both emotionally and intellectually. Most writing about evaluation is published in academic journals, which can be unpalatable (and sometimes inaccessible) to evaluation users. In contrast, we all intuitively understand and remember stories. Project Purpose: o To publish an international collection of stories about evaluations that have made a difference o To use elements of effective storytelling to engage readers and capture multiple perspectives, including policy-makers, evaluators and other stakeholders o To conduct an analysis of factors that contributed to making the evaluations useful, yielding insights about the ?enablers? of a valuable evaluation Potential for Impact: o Improve demand and use of evaluation by policy makers It is our hope that the collection of stories will improve demand for evaluation by improving understanding of evaluation, and by fostering more positive attitudes toward evaluation. We hope to find some stories that will inspire policy makers to use evaluation. We expect this to represent a useful tool to support the demand side of evaluation. It is also our intent that the cross-case analysis will improve the quality and impact of evaluations by identifying key enablers to high-value evaluations. As the value of evaluations improves, the demand and use of evaluation should increase.