Although evaluations are often undertaken at the request of donors or as part of donor driven proposals, is that the only reason to conduct evaluations? As Emma Naughton and Kevin Kelpin point out, though quantifiable results may matter for donors, it is the assessment of the journey that matters equally if not more to those doing the work. And in the end, isn’t that work really being done for the beneficiaries, and not the donors?
Beneficiaries (or more widely the communities affected by our work or their representatives) have a right to know what we tried to do on their behalf and whether we made a difference. If yes, what brought that about? And if no, (or not yet), why not? Should we have approached things differently? Beneficiaries clearly have less power than donors, which makes it feel like all the pressure for evaluation comes from donors—in the end project evaluations do not always involve and are not always shared with beneficiaries. But what happens when we have an entire evaluation and decision-making process that doesn’t include the very people we are trying to help?
What happens when we have an entire evaluation and decision-making process that doesn’t include the very people we are trying to help? A second important audience is made up of activists, staff, board members, members, volunteers, our peers and colleagues, and the wider human rights community. We also want to know if we made a real difference. We want to know which methods work, under which circumstances and why. We need this information to intervene effectively in the future and to know that all the risks have been worthwhile. Evaluations can feel risky to people working on human rights, because such processes question whether we have done the right things in the right ways. This can sometimes be demoralising to staff who have worked hard “at the coalface” and who may, at times, lose sight of the bigger picture.
