5. Process Evaluation Design
"Trust the process" - Sam Hinkie
Lesson Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this lesson.
Lesson Materials
0. Intro To The Lesson
Process evaluation examines the implementation of a program, and assesses whether the implementation followed or deviated from expectations.
1. Goals Of The Lesson
After this lesson, you will be able to describe what a process evaluation is, why an organization might do a PE, how to do a PE, and when to do a PE.
2. Example Program: Farm To Market Alliance
This video introduces key phases in the development of a program through the example of FtMA's agricultural extension services in Zambia.
3. FtMA Theory Of Change
FtMA's Theory of Change illustrates how agricultural extension services are expected to raise farmer incomes.
4. FtMA Critical ToC Linkage
Diving deep into one linkage in FtMA's ToC reveals several assumptions that must be true for the program to be successful. These assumptions will be examined in a PE.
5. What Is A Process Evaluation?
A process evaluation is a systematic, empirical investigation to generate evidence on whether anticipated program processes have taken place and, if not, what happened instead.
6. What You Can And Can't Learn From Process Evaluation
A process evaluation can illuminate many aspects of program implementation and critical steps in the Theory of Change, but it can not confirm or reject causal mechanisms.
7. Why Do A Process Evaluation?
A process evaluation can inform whether to continue a program, modify a program, or terminate a program, but a process evaluation is usually not sufficient to inform scale-up decisions.
8. How To Do A Process Evaluation
A process evaluation can leverage various data sources, such as administrative and operational data, questionnaires and assessments of stakeholders, direct observation, and other types of quantitative and qualitative data.
9. When To Do A Process Evaluation
A process evaluation should be conducted when the results will be timely to inform program decisions.
10. Wrap-Up
A process evaluation is the best-fit, most rigorous way to answer questions about program processes and comparing implementation to expectations.
[No Quiz]
Additional Resources
UK MRC Process Evaluation framework (link)
Banner photo: Charles Minard's map of Napoleon's 1812 Russia campaign, an early and stunning example of a Sankey diagram. Accessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard#/media/File:Minard.png