A literature review is a desktop-based research of previous projects and other initiatives that can inform and support the need for a project, as well as provide a foundation for the work to be undertaken. The review should identify what similar work has been done, what works, and what doesn’t, so that you do not […]
Formative evaluation is generally any evaluation that takes place before or during a project’s implementation with the aim of improving the project’s design and performance. Formative evaluation complements summative evaluation and is essential for trying to understand why a program works or doesn’t, and what other factors (internal and external) are at work during a
There are two broad categories of social research methods and data that can be collected: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative Quantitative methods deal with numerical data (eg. number of people recycling, number of energy efficient lights). Quantitative methods can reach large number of people, and generally involve a short interaction. The popularity of collecting quantitative data
A Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan is a guide as to what you should evaluate, what information you need, and who you are evaluating for. The plan outlines the key evaluation questions and the detailed monitoring questions that help answer the evaluation questions. This allows you to identify the information you need to collect, and
You should now be aware of what monitoring and evaluation is, and how it does not just refer to something you do at the end of a project, but rather something that ideally needs to be considered as part of a project’s life-cycle. Where are you on the project management cycle? Ideally, you should
Participatory monitoring and evaluation refers to getting all project stakeholders, particularly the target group, involved in a project evaluation (and also the design of the evaluation). The level of participation can vary, from the getting the target group to set objectives, targets, and data sources themselves, to getting participants to gather data, tell their story,
Evaluation can be characterised as being either formative or summative (see Table below). Broadly (and this is not a rule), formative evaluation looks at what leads to an intervention working (the process), whereas summative evaluation looks at the short-term to long-term outcomes of an intervention on the target group. Formative evaluation Formative evaluation takes place
There are many definitions of evaluation in the literature and websites. For the purpose of this guide, we will define evaluation as a structured process of assessing the success of a project in meeting its goals and to reflect on the lessons learned. Project A project typically relates to a set of specific activities within
Models of Behaviour What is important to understand about models is that each has their own assumptions, which, like in economics, rarely hold true. These models are useful to explain underlying factors that influence behaviour; however there are multiple external factors that may also be in operation at any given time, with only some models
Behaviour change, merging the fields of sociology and psychology, is becoming an increasingly important area of research and action. Simply put, household sustainability behaviour change projects aim for a target group to take up more sustainable behaviours. The complexity of behaviour change lies in the difficulties in changing behaviours, as opposed to raising awareness for
