Studying Self-Evaluation Capacity Building in a Large International Development Organization

Abstract

This action research study addresses the link between building evaluation capacity and enhancing evaluation use for learning. The author shares her experiences and reports on the evidence collected from a set of self-evaluation capacity-building interventions that she implemented. Using a mixed-method approach, the author first determined that the organization lacked the prerequisites to learn from evaluation. She then implemented self-evaluation capacity-building interventions, accompanied by a real-time study of how the participants changed attitudinally, cognitively, and behaviorally. Results indicate the potential of these interventions to facilitate an individual’s ability to learn from evaluation and underscore the need for supportive organizational contexts, structures, and processes if evaluation use for learning is to occur throughout the organization.