Communication and Use
of Evaluation Results
IbnSina IPHMS
March 2009.
Why Do We Evaluate a
Program?
• To measure effectiveness
• To ensure resources are being used
to achieve planned results
• To propose changes
• To identify new directions and needs
What Do We Need To Do
After an Evaluation
Share information about analyzed data
with identified stakeholders.
HOW?
Use Effective Communication Strategies to
help stakeholders Understand the
results and Use them.
Uses of Evaluation Results
• Instrumental - to yield decisions
• Conceptual – to generate ideas
and understanding
• Symbolic/ Persuasive – to justify
what decision makers want
Evaluation Findings May Be Used
• For planning future interventions
• For making changes or corrections to
program, midterm
• For lessons learned
• For information
The Evaluation TOR
• Communication and dissemination of
the evaluation report will
essentially follow the requirements
and modalities agreed on between
stakeholders, in the evaluation
Terms Of Reference .
4 Strategies for Effective Use
of Findings and
Recommendations:
• Be intentional and purposeful about
reporting
• Focus reports on primary intended
users
• Share findings first in draft form
(don’t surprise stakeholders)
• Think positive about negatives
Presenting Evaluation
Findings
• Frame findings and recommendations as ‘lessons
learned’ and ‘best practices’
• Use clear jargon-free style,
• Use tables and figures to make information
more understandable,
• Communicate negative findings so that they can
be used productively,
Presenting Findings of
Evaluation…contd.
• Summarize findings and interpretations
appropriately for different audiences,
• Ensure the format of each
communication/report facilitates easy
interpretation and assimilation of its
contents.
Communication Strategy
No one dissemination strategy is
suited to all situations.
• Identify the most effective means
for disseminating findings and
recommendations to various key
stakeholders and audiences, so that
their use is guaranteed within limits
of time and budgets.
The ‘How To’
• You may have several intended
audiences, each with different
interests and preferences.
• Before writing your report, consider
the needs of your audience.
Be concise!
• Content is not always best shared in
long and complicated reports.
• Three concise pages may have more
impact than a fifty page report.
Simplify
• Instead of a large document
describing a complex set of ideas,
consider dividing results into several
smaller reports.
• In determining your approach
consider the easiest and clearest way
to present information to your key
stakeholders.
Method of Reporting Should
Meet the Need
• A report may be a simple verbal
presentation, with supporting charts,
case studies or targeted qualitative
results.
• Or may require more details such as the
goals and history of the program,
methods of evaluation, findings,
interpretation, and conclusions and
recommendations.
Parts of a Standard
Evaluation Report…
•
•
•
•
Cover or Title Page
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Executive Summary
…Parts of a Standard Evaluation
Report
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction/ Background
Methodology
Findings
Conclusions and Recommendations
Annexures
What to Include…
• Description of program, its goals,
target population, and activities
• Overview of evaluation questions
• Description of evaluation participants
(sample size, strategies used to
obtain consent)
…What to Include
• Methods and procedures used for
collection and analysis of data
• Outline of strengths and limitations
of evaluation methodology
…What to Include
• Evaluation findings including:
-characteristics of participants
-services provided by program
-results for each major evaluation
question.
…What to Include
• Conclusions and Recommendations:
- strengths of program revealed by
evaluation findings
- recommendations for improvement
of services
- other implications of findings such
as policy implications
- suggestions for improving future
evaluation activities.
Tips for Writing
Evaluation Reports
Organize information –
The aim in organizing is that readers
can easily understand the structure
of the report, and find the
information that interests them.
To Organize Information
• Organize by evaluation issues
rather than by data collection.
This will enable readers with
different interests locate
information quickly
To Organize Information
• Provide an introduction that
summarizes the format and
content of the report
• Use consistent headings and
subheadings to help the reader.
Identify Key Findings
In a long report, make your key findings
stand out – accord them emphasis.
• Within each section start with the most
important information.
• Present key findings in text and in tables
• Use visual emphasis
• Restate key findings in executive summary and
conclusions.
Use an Executive Summary
• For long reports, an executive
summary can ensure that all kinds of
readers can access significant
information.
• A shorter and simpler presentation
ensures information is accessible to a
wide range of readers.
Use of Appendices
• To keep your report short and
focused, consider using appendices
for supplemental information.
• Significant information should not be
located in an appendix.
Use of Appendices
Appendices can provide supplemental
information to interested stakeholders,
such as:
• Additional information about program
• Copies of focus group protocols, surveys
etc.
• Copies of consent forms, additional
tables or figures.
Use Simple and
Interesting Format
• Keep report visually interesting
• Leave “white space” – do not crowd
the page
• Use consistent stylistic and visual
features.
Use Simple and
Interesting Format
• Use fonts, of legible size and
shape
• Use bullets and sidebars to
emphasize key information.
Use Straightforward and
Interesting Language…
• Use familiar words rather than
jargon
• Use active verbs as much as possible
• Delete unnecessary words and
phrases
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short
How Not To Write
1- Imagine a mental picture of someone
engaged in the intellectual activity of
trying to learn what the rules are for
how to play the game of chess.
2- He was called to the office to be told
about his father’s death by the
headmaster.
How Not To Write
3- It is a tricky problem to find the
particular calibration in timing that
would be appropriate to stem the
acceleration in risk premiums created
by falling incomes without… aborting
the decline in the inflation-generated
risk premiums.
How Not To Write
4- His
style of writing is
magniloquent.
…Use Straightforward and
Interesting Language
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short
• Avoid expressions that may be
unfamiliar to readers across cultural
communities (slang or idiomatic
expression)
Straightforward versus
Complex Language
What do you think the following sentence
means?
It is indeed a not unsupportable inference
that we have been unsuccessful in our
attempt to forward the proposal to the
proper agency in advance of the
mandated date by which such proposals
must be in receipt.
Be Objective
• Refrain from any appearance of
taking sides
• Report both positive and negative
findings
• Discuss limitations of the evaluation
fully and honestly
Be Objective
• Be clear about what is a statistical
finding versus your own
interpretation.
• Avoid emotionally charged language
Disseminating information
• Why dissemination
• Who (who is responsible)
• What (what to disseminate,
objective)
• For Whom (select audience)
• How (method)
Dissemination channels
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Detailed written report
Summaries of evaluation findings
Brochure on lessons and recommendations
Annual report
Article in technical or organizational newsletter
News release
Press conference and Media appearance
Public meeting, public debate
Seminar, workshop, or group discussion
Electronically (e- mail, Internet, websites)
Effective Dissemination
Strategies
• As evaluators disseminate findings
and recommendations in the most
effective ways possible. WHY?
• Because “evaluations are conducted
primarily to provide decision makers
with informed options for improving
programs”.
Evaluators Should…
• Report regularly and frequently, in
person if at all possible, and target
specific audiences and issues,
• Focus on key points (simplify, simplify),
• Know the audiences (tailor information to
the audiences),
Evaluators Should…contd.
Focus on actions that can be taken
by the targeted audiences (doable
recommendations),
• Report in many different ways.
Review and discuss Results
with Stakeholders
• Before finalizing an evaluation
report, consider reviewing results
with other staff and colleagues.
• Discussing a draft version of the
report can provide additional
viewpoints regarding meaning of data
Guidelines for Dissemination, to
Increase Usefulness of Evaluation
Results
• Develop realistic recommendations
focusing on improvement of evaluated
program
• Explore multiple uses of study data
• Constantly remind decision makers of
findings and recommendations
• Share findings and recommendations with
broad audiences.
Consider Creative Strategies
for Disseminating Results
Be innovative in reporting findings.
• Use a variety of techniques such as
visual displays, oral presentations,
interim reports, and informal
conversations.
Creative Strategies for
Disseminating Results
Other creative strategies may include:
• Making a short video presenting the
results
• Sharing results with the media, through
a press release and/or press conference
Creative Strategies for
Disseminating Results
• Making presentations to select
groups
• Writing separate summaries and
articles targeting specific audiences
• Staging a debate in which opposing
points of view can be fully aired.
Effective dissemination of
lessons learned can:
• Help stakeholders at different levels
understand relevance of other activities and
achievements, thus improving collaboration and
co-ordination
• Inform decision makers to make changes and
corrections, and avoid common mistakes, thus
promoting a more enabling environment
• Allow other practitioners to learn from previous
experience and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’
Acknowledgements
• Communicating Evaluation Results - Issue
14, April 2008.
• Bureau of Justice Assistance– Reporting
and Using Evaluation Results –
http://www.oip.usdoj.gov/BJA/evaluation/
guide/ru2.htm
• W.K. Kellog Foundation Evaluation Tool Kit:
Reporting –
http://www.wkkt.org/Default.aspx?tabid=
90&CID=281&ItemID=2810021&NID=282
0021&LanguageID=0