Evaluation cannot be done in isolation. Community health and development work involves partnerships—alliances among different organizations, board members, and those affected by the problem, who each bring unique perspectives.
When stakeholders are not appropriately involved in developing and implementing your evaluation plan, your findings are likely to be ignored, criticized, or resisted. Any serious effort to evaluate a program must consider the viewpoints of the partners who will be involved in planning and delivering activities, your target audience(s), and the primary users of the evaluation data. Stakeholder involvement helps to ensure that the evaluation design, including the methods and instruments used, is consistent with the cultural norms of the people you serve.
Engaging stakeholders who represent and reflect the populations you hope to reach greatly increases the chance that your evaluation efforts will be successful. When stakeholders are part of the process, they are likely to feel ownership for the evaluation plan and its results. They can also influence how or even whether your evaluation results are used.
Consider forming a Data Committee that would work in collaboration with an evaluator to collect the data, analyze results, and share findings with partners, the community, the media, and others. Having more people trained in data collection and analysis and able to spread the word about the group’s successes contributes to sustainability.
A strong evaluation system can provide monthly data about activities and accomplishments that can be used for planning and better coordination among partners. In addition, sharing evaluation data can give the group a needed boost during the long process of facilitating changes in community programs, policies, or practices.