Judicael ELIDJE, my vision of the world

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Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
Passionné de politique, je suis pour un monde avec plus d'égalité et d'équité entre les hommes. Je suis partisan de l'éveil des consciences.

mercredi 15 août 2012

PERSONAL M&E SERIES 1_A GLANCE ABOUT EMPOWERMENT EVALUATION


PERSONAL MONITORING AND EVALUATION SERIES
















A GLANCE ABOUT EMPOWERMENT EVALUATION




Working document

Judicael ELIDJE



________________________________


Background: from participatory evaluation to empowerment evaluation
Evaluation[1] is a time-bound exercise that attempts to assess systematically and objectively the relevance, performance and success, or the lack thereof, of ongoing and completed programmes or projects. Most often, evaluation is undertaken selectively to answer specific questions in order to guide decision-makers and/or programme managers. It also aims at providing appropriate information on whether underlying theories and assumptions used in programme development were valid as well as what worked and what did not work and the reasons. Evaluation commonly aims to determine the relevance, validity of design, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of a programme.
Several types of evaluations exercises exist today. Among them participatory and empowerment evaluations are currently used to identify and support changes in an identified community. They both include key elements which are the involvement and the participation of all stakeholders in the evaluation process starting from the design to the implementation of the evaluation.
Overview of participatory evaluation
The participatory evaluation is an evaluation method in which representatives of agencies and stakeholders (providers, partners, beneficiaries, and any other interested parties) work together in all phases of the evaluation: planning and design; gathering and analyzing the data; identifying the evaluation findings, conclusions, and recommendations; disseminating results; and preparing an action plan to improve program performance.[2] Experience has shown that participatory evaluations improve program performance because they put a stress on listening to and learning from the interventions beneficiaries and other key stakeholders who have a good knowledge of the programme. Participatory evaluations allow stakeholders to gain knowledge, to make improvements, to use the information to improve performance. Participatory evaluations have advantages and disadvantages as shown in the table below.
Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of participatory evaluation[3]
PARTICIPATORY EVALUATIONS
Advantages
Disadvantages
·        Examine relevant issues by involving key players in evaluation design
·        Promote participants’ learning about the program and its performance and enhance their understanding of other stakeholders’ points of view
·        Improve participants’ evaluation skills
·        Mobilize stakeholders, enhance teamwork, and build shared commitment to act on evaluation recommendations
·        Increase likelihood that evaluation infor­mation will be used to improve performance
·        Be viewed as less objective because pro- gram staff, customers, and other stakehold­ers with possible vested interests partici­pate
·        Be less useful in addressing highly techni­cal aspects
·        Require considerable time and resources to identify and involve a wide array of stake­holders
·        Take participating staff away from ongoing activities
·        Be dominated and misused by some stake­holders to further their own interests

Though the participatory evaluation and the empowerment evaluation have many similarities in their principles, objectives and approaches, the empowerment evaluation seems to be more focused on community improvement and self-determination.
Overview of empowerment evaluation
The last two decades were the witnesses of increase use of participatory and collaborative approaches to evaluation. These approaches were valued in evaluating complex community-based programmes and require a strong commitment to democratic participation, inclusion[4].
Rapid tour into years ago
According to Michael Quinn Patton[5], the phrase "empowerment evaluation" became prominent in the lexicon of evaluation when Fetterman, as President of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), made it the theme of the Association's 1993 National Conference. Then, Karen Kirkhart, President of AEA in 1994, provided an additional platform for discussing empowerment by choosing "Evaluation and Social Justice" as the theme for the national conference over which she presided. The importance of the idea of empowerment evaluation as a frontier of evaluation practice was further recognized by the profession when David Fetterman, in 1995, and Shakeh Kaftarian, in 1996, won the Alva and Gunnar Mydral Award for Evaluation Practice, and Margret Dugan, in 1995, won the Guttentag Award as a promising evaluator.
In 1996, Fetterman et al. publicized[6] the first empowerment evaluation book untitled “Empowerment Evaluation: Knowledge and Tools for Self-assessment and Accountability” which provided an introduction to the theory and practice of this approach. The book highlighted the scope of empowerment evaluation ranging from its use in a national educational reform movement to its endorsement by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Director of Evaluation. The book also presented examples of empowerment evaluation in various contexts, including federal, state, and local government; HIV prevention and related health initiatives, African American communities, and battered women’s shelters. Several books and theories around the empowerment evaluation have been developed since this time. However, the most recent empowerment evaluation book is titled Empowerment Evaluation Principles in Practice (Fetterman & Wandersman, 2005) contributed to greater conceptual clarity of empowerment evaluation. In fact, it makes more explicit the principles of the approach and highlights the approach’s commitment to accountability.
Definitions
According to the EuroFEM Framework for Local and Regional Development[7], empowerment evaluation is an approach to assessment which invites participants to evaluate themselves and their projects. It is based on the assumption that empowering processes, such as attempts to gain control, obtain resources and critically understand one´s social and physical environment, may have favourable outcomes on individual, institutional and social level. Empowerment evaluation is designed to help people help themselves and improve their projects by using forms of self-evaluation and reflection in predesigned learning situations. Thus it is close to community capacity building. This type of evaluation, which focuses on the developmental process (formative evaluation) as well as on the results and impact (summative evaluation) is a major tool for managing the project or programme. Empowerment evaluation is a theory and a method which allows us to reflect on the development of our organisations and projects. This theory fits comfortably with the notions of the reflective practitioner and learning organisation.
Wandersman et al’s[8] attempt to give a definition to empowerment evaluation suggest that empowerment evaluation is an evaluation approach that aims to increase the probability of achieving program success by providing program stakeholders with tools for assessing the planning, implementation, and self-evaluation of their program, and mainstreaming evaluation as part of the planning and management of the programme/organisation.
David Fetterman[9] rather defines empowerment evaluation as the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment evaluation is designed to help people help themselves and improve their programs using a form of self-evaluation and reflection. The involvement of programme participants is real and includes clients in order to allow them to conduct their own evaluations. In his vision, an external evaluator n serves as a coach or additional facilitator depending on internal program capabilities. The aim is to try to understand what is going on in a situation from the participant’s own perspective as accurately and honestly as possible and then proceed to improve
The common ground of these definitions is the self-evaluation of programme participants as well the self-empowerment of the different stakeholders involved in the process. Empowerment evaluations employ both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. It can be applied to individuals, organizations, communities, and societies or cultures even if the focus is still on programme.
Key points and tenets of the approach
Difference between traditional evaluation and empowerment evaluation
Empowerment evaluation is designed to address a specific evaluative need. It could in any case pretend to be a substitute for other forms of evaluative inquiry or appraisal. The key message in empowerment evaluation is to educate people to manage their own affairs in areas they know better and the same time to create new roles for evaluators to help others help themselves. In that perspective, empowerment evaluation concepts become clearer and clarify the roles of each participant in the process.
Table 2: Traditional Evaluation versus Empowerment Evaluation[10]
Traditional Evaluation
Empowerment Evaluation
External
Internal
Expert
Coach or Critical Friend
Dependency
Self-determination and capacity building
Independent judgement
Collaboration
As shown in the table, empowerment evaluation creates a shift in the paradigm of evaluation. Indeed, empowerment evaluation gives an asset to stakeholders to improve their relationships by promoting a collaborative attitude and self-improvement attitude instead of defensive attitude. 
Empowerment evaluation concepts and the principles
Principles[11]
Self-determination is basic to empowerment evaluation and will continue to be a central part of the definition of empowerment evaluation. We also enhanced the conceptual quality of empowerment evaluation by elaborating on other concepts as well, such as the terms empowerment and community. Empowerment evaluation has been guided by principles since its beginning. According to David Fetterman, there are 10 underlying principles of empowerment evaluation as follows:
      1.            Improvement: A key aim is to improve people, programs, organisations and communities and to help them achieve results.
      2.            Community ownership: Program stakeholders, with the assistance of evaluators, take responsibility for designing and conducting the evaluation and putting the findings to use.
      3.            Inclusion: Participants, staff from all levels of a program or organization, funders, and community members are invited to participate.
      4.            Democratic participation: Active participation by all in shared decision making is valued; processes are based on deliberation, action and authentic collaboration.
      5.            Social justice: High value placed on addressing the larger social good of practices and programs and achieving a more equitable society. Seen as a means to help people address inequities through capacity building.
      6.            Community knowledge: Community-based knowledge, information and experience is respected and used to make decisions, understand the local context and interpret results.
      7.            Evidence-based strategies: Value placed on providing empirical justifications for action and drawing on other evidence-based strategies that have worked. However, they need to be adapted to the local environment, culture and conditions.
      8.            Capacity-building: Program staff and participants learn how to conduct their own evaluations. All people and organizations are seen as capable of conducting evaluations when provided with the appropriate tools and conditions.
      9.            Organizational learning: It helps create a community of learners. Continually reflecting on and evaluating programs and organizations makes groups or organizations more responsive to changes and challenges. Evaluation results are used to guide improvement.
  10.            Accountability: Individuals and organizations are held accountable for commitments made. Funders are held accountable concerning their expectations. A commitment is made to results-based interventions and continuous improvement.
These principles are primarily designed to improve practice. The principles guide every part of empowerment evaluation, from conceptualization to implementation.
Getting to Outcomes: Ten Step towards a results-based accountability
Apart from the principles proposed by Fetterman, Wandersman, Imm, Chinman, & Kaftarian al. proposed in 2000 another methodological approach to empowerment evaluation. This approach is a set of 10 questions called Getting to Outcomes. The GTO approach asks and helps users answer the question using relevant literature, methods, and tools. The 10 accountability questions and types of literature to address them are as follows:
Table 3: 10 question for accountability and adapted literature
Accountability questions
Types of literature
1.          What are the needs and resources in your organization, school, community, or state?
Needs assess­ment; resource assessment
2.          What are the goals, target population, and desired outcomes (objectives) for your school/ community/state?
Goal setting
3.          How does the intervention incorporate knowledge of science and best practices in this area?
Science and best practices
4.          How does the intervention fit with other programs already being offered?
Collaboration; cultural competence
5.          What capacities do you need to put this intervention into place with quality?
Capacity building
6.          How will this intervention be carried out?
Planning
7.          How will the quality of implementation be assessed?
Process evaluation
8.          How well did the intervention work?
Outcome and impact evaluation
9.          How will continuous quality improvement strategies be incorporated?
Total quality management; continuous quality improvement)
10.       If the intervention is (or components are) successful, how will the intervention be sustained?
Sustainability and institutionalization
This 10-step process enhances practitioners’ planning, implementation, and evaluation skills.
Concepts: 4 steps to carry out an Empowerment Evaluation[12]
To carry out an empowerment evaluation, four pragmatic steps are necessarily to be undertaken. These four steps are focused in how to help others learn to evaluate their own programs:
1)      Taking stock or determining where the program stands, including strengths and weaknesses: Programme participants involve in the process are requested to rate their program on a 1 to 10 scale. They have to make the rating as accurate as possible. Program participants are also asked to document their ratings (both the ratings of specific program components and the overall program rating). The significance of this process, however, is not the actual rating so much as it is the creation of a baseline from which future progress can be measured. In addition, it sensitizes program participants to the necessity of collecting data to support assessments or appraisals.
2)      Focusing on establishing goals or determining where you want to go in the future with an explicit emphasis on program improvement: Programme participants are asked how highly they would like to rate their program in the future. Then they are asked what goals they want to set to warrant that future rating. These goals should be established in conjunction with programme managers and beneficiaries to ensure relevance from both perspectives. In addition, goals should be realistic, taking into consideration such factors as initial conditions, motivation, resources, and program dynamics. It is important that goals be related to the programme's activities, talents, resources, and scope of capability.
3)      Developing strategies and helping participants determine their own strategies to accomplish program goals and objectives: Program participants are also responsible for selecting and developing strategies to accomplish program objectives. Brainstorming, critical review, and consensual agreement are used to establish a set of strategies. Determining appropriate strategies, in consultation with programme managers and beneficiaries, is an essential part of the empowering process. Program participants are typically the most knowledgeable about their own jobs, and this approach acknowledges and uses that expertise.
4)      Helping programme participants determine the type of evidence required to document progress credibly toward their goals: Program participants are asked what type of documentation is required to monitor progress toward their goals. This is a critical step. Each form of documentation is scrutinized for relevance to avoid devoting time to collecting information that will not be useful or relevant. Program participants are asked to explain how a given form of documentation is related to specific program goals. In addition, documentation must be credible and rigorous if it is to withstand the criticism that this evaluation is self-serving.
Developmental stages of empowerment evaluation
Training, facilitation, advocacy, illumination, and liberation are all facets of empowerment evaluation. They constitute an integral part of the evaluation process and put an on program development, improvement, and lifelong learning.
a.    Training: Evaluators teach people to conduct their own evaluations and thus become more self-sufficient. This approach desensitizes and demystifies evaluation and ideally helps organizations internalize evaluation principles and practices, making evaluation an integral part of programme planning. An external evaluation is an exercise in dependency rather than an empowering experience: Most of the time, the process ends when the evaluator departs, and leaving participants without the knowledge or experience to do it for themselves. Contrary, an evaluation conducted by program participants is designed to be internalized in the system, creating the opportunity for capacity building.
b.    Facilitation: Empowerment evaluators serve as coaches or facilitators to help others conduct a self-evaluation. It is critical to emphasize that the staff are in charge of their effort; otherwise, program participants initially tend to look to the empowerment evaluator as expert, which makes them dependent on an outside agent. An empowerment evaluation coach can also provide useful information about how to create facilitation teams (balancing analytical and social skills), work with resistant (but interested) units, develop refresher sessions to energize tired units, and resolve various protocol issues. The empowerment evaluation coach must ensure that the evaluation remains in the hands of program personnel.
c.       Advocacy: both programme managers and beneficiaries often collaborate to establish goals, strategies for achieving those goals. They work together to document progress and set realistic timelines. They also collect data on their own performance and present their case for their performance appraisal. This self-evaluation thus becomes a tool of advocacy as this tool is easily transferable to the group or programme level.
d.      Illumination. Illumination is an eye-opening, revealing, and enlightening experience. A new insight or understanding about roles, structures, and programme dynamics is developed in the process of determining worth and striving for programme improvement.
e.      Liberation. Liberation is the act of being freed or freeing oneself from pre-existing roles and constraints. It often involves new conceptualizations of oneself and others. Empowerment evaluation can also be liberating. Many of the examples in this discussion demonstrate how helping individuals take charge of their lives and find useful ways to evaluate themselves. Thus, it liberates them from traditional expectations and roles. They also demonstrate how empowerment evaluation enables participants to find new opportunities, see existing resources in a new light, and redefine their identities and future roles.

A good knowledge and understanding of the principles, the results-based accountability questions, the four steps 4 steps to carry out an empowerment evaluation and the developmental stages of empowerment evaluation are key elements to be known before in undertaking this type of evaluation. As part from these technical issues, other elements need to be in place for empowerment evaluation to be effective and credible such as an environment conducive to sharing successes and failures and an honest, self-critical, trusting, and supportive atmosphere. However, the accuracy and usefulness of self-ratings improve dramatically in this context. It is also important to have as far possible an outside evaluator who can help keep the effort credible, useful, and on track, providing additional rigor, reality checks, and quality controls throughout the evaluation. With many of these elements in place, the exercise can create a dynamic community of transformative learning.

Case study
Empowerment Evaluation with Programs Designed to Prevent First-Time Male Perpetration of Sexual Violence[13]
“This special issue captures several threads in the ongoing evolution of sexual violence prevention. The articles that follow examine an empowerment evaluation process with four promising programs dedicated to pre­venting first-time male perpetration of sexual violence, as well as evaluation findings. Both the evaluation approach and the programs examined shed light on how sexual violence prevention can continue to be improved in the future”.

“Without the perpetrator there is no act of abuse.” Bernard Acuter, 2008

Abstract: This simple, but powerful, observation characterizes the focus of recent efforts in the field of sexual violence prevention. Thirty-five years after the birth of the antirape movement of the 1970s, prevention efforts continue to evolve in new ways, including a greater focus on the prevention of perpetration and a gradual shift from confronting sexual violence as a political and criminal justice issue to understanding it as a public health hazard.
The antirape movement began with an emphasis on victim services and criminal accountability for perpe­trators. Early efforts also demonstrated great faith that raising political and public awareness about sexual assault would mobilize communities to stop it. Although these measures continue to be important, they clearly cannot by themselves eradicate the underlying problem perpetration.

After decades of effort, we still face unacceptable levels of sexual violence in our homes, schools, and communities. In response, advocates, researchers, and funding agencies have turned to a new perspective from which to address this problem—by harnessing knowledge gained in behavioural and health sciences. Informed by advances in prevention science, sexual violence prevention efforts have evolved from one-time awareness-raising sessions to ongoing programs, incor­porated behaviour change strategies proven effective in other fields, enacted policies encompassing all layers of social life, and applied increasingly sophisticated program evaluation methods to understand—and build on—“what works.”
This special issue captures several threads in the ongoing evolution of sexual violence prevention. The articles that follow examine an empowerment evalua­tion process with four promising programs dedicated to preventing first-time male perpetration of sexual violence, as well as evaluation findings. Both the evaluation approach and the programs examined shed light on how we can continue to improve sexual violence prevention in the future.
BUILDING CAPACITY AND EVIDENCE KNOWLEDGE: CDC’s response to this gap in prevention program­ming involved two strategic decisions: the focus on a small number of established programs that aim to pre­vent first-time male perpetration of sexual violence and the use of empowerment evaluation. This twin approach offered the greatest possible benefit in building evaluation capacity among organizations in the field while expediting the development of an evidence base for prevention programs.


Discussion related to the above mentioned study
David Fetterman[14] defines empowerment evaluation as the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment evaluation is designed to help people help themselves and improve their programmes using a form of self-evaluation and reflection. The process absolutely requires the involvement of programme participants.
Though the special issue on sexual violence prevention article does not mention clearly all the different stages, principles and steps of empowerment evaluation, the study put an emphasis on self-evaluation and self-improvement. The study also focused on change in behaviour.
As tool for self-empowerment, the study enhances the training of involved programme. In fact, they developed a training approach which was made of a technical assistance process based on the formative evaluation consultation and systems technique (FORECAST), a development of a logic model, identification of evaluation markers and measures, interpretation of the meaning from evaluation data. In the same way, the programme stakeholders’ engagement as a tenet of empowerment evaluation was tested through the FORECAST process.
n      Most thought the methodology was valuable
n      Opportunity to share information, experiences and ideas appreciated
n      Knowledge and understanding of participatory program evaluation increased

Criticism against this approach
Strengths and limitations of empowerment evaluation
As many of types of evaluations, empowerment evaluation has both strengths and limitations in the methodological approach. The table below gives an idea of some of them.



Table 4: Strengths and limitations of empowerment evaluation[15]
Strengths of empowerment evaluation
Limitations of empowerment evaluation
·      Robust process; demonstrated effectiveness in improving community-based programs
·      Builds evaluation capacities and a culture of evaluation based on continuous improvement and learning
·      Evaluation designed and controlled by program staff, participants and stakeholders
·      Process is participatory and inclusive
·      Methods aim to be democratic and empowering
·      Enables the ongoing collection of reliable, evidence-based data
·      Can provide more open and honest assessments of a program’s strengths and weaknesses
·      Evaluators need a wide range of skills, including facilitation and training, and knowledge of program evaluation
·      Requires careful management of power relations and differing agendas, values and perspectives
·      Process requires time and resources that are not always available
·      Involvement of volunteers can be problematic


Other concern[16]s
The research field of empowerment evaluation is wide. The issues addressed are social, educational, industrial, health care, and many other problems. The whole process needs to be rigorous and the setting mechanisms must help to ensure that program participants are critical, analytical, and honest.
Objectivity of self-evaluation: It is really possible to be totally objective during your self-evaluation? This is a relevant concern that empowerment evaluation needs to permanently answer. This question is raised because empowerment evaluations are undertaken by taking into account the dimensions of life, political, social, cultural, and economic contexts.
Participant or programme bias: The process of conducting an empowerment evaluation requires the appropriate involvement of stakeholders. However, some of them could show a low level of commitment and involvement because of everyone personal agenda.
Positions of privilege: It is possible to have during an empowerment evaluation among the stakeholders one dominant group. This group could have the vision, make and changes the rules, enforce the standards, and need never question its own position or seriously consider any other. In such a view, differences become deficits rather than additive elements of culture. People in positions of privilege dismiss the contributions of a multicultural world. They create rational policies and procedures that systematically deny full participation in their community to people who think and behave differently.

Conclusion
In essence, empowerment evaluation is the "give someone a fish and you feed her for a day; teach her to fish, and she will feed herself for the rest of her life" concept, as applied to evaluation. This is ownership. Empowerment evaluation is fundamentally a democratic process. In other words, empowerment evaluation ensures that each voice is heard in the chorus, but when the performance begins it is the chorus that is heard. Empowerment evaluation is about building capacity, building community, and building a future. Teaching evaluation logic and skills is a way of building capacity for ongoing self assessment as well as enhancing the capacity for self-determination. Thus empowerment evaluation creates a synergistic force in our communities to do good and pursuing a social justice agenda.
Empowerment evaluation has captured the imagination of many evaluators, program staff, and program participants who are committed to achieving outcomes on important educational, health, and human service concerns. Serious advances have been made in conceptual clarity, methodological specificity and rigor, and documentation of outcomes. The seeds of empowerment evaluation have been planted both in the community and the field of evaluation and they have taken hold.



[1] Programme Manager’s Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit, Tool Number 1: Glossary of Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Terms, UNFPA Division for Oversight Services, March 2004

[2] Conducting a participatory evaluation, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation TIPS, USAID Center for Development Information and Evaluation, 1996 Number 1

[3] Conducting a participatory evaluation, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation TIPS, USAID Center for Development Information and Evaluation, 1996 Number 1
[4] Using empowerment evaluation to improve community-based programs, Presentation made by Dr June Lennie at the AES lunchtime seminar, Brisbane, 14 September 2005
[5] Toward distinguishing empowerment evaluation and placing it in a larger context, Michael Quinn Patton
[6] Empowerment Evaluation, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, David Fetterman and Abraham Wandersman, 180 American Journal of Evaluation / June 2007
[7] The EuroFEM Framework for Local and Regional Development, chapter 3: concepts and theories, page 8
[8] Using empowerment evaluation to improve community-based programs; presentation made by Dr June Lennie at the AES lunchtime seminar, Brisbane, 14 September 2005
[9] David M. Fetterman; Empowerment Evaluation: Building Communities of Practice and a Culture of Learning, American Journal of Community Psychology;Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2002 ,
[10] Empowerment Evaluation: Principles in Practice; Environmental Education Evaluation Learning Community of East Bay Community Foundation; presentation made by Dr. David M. Fetterman at Stanford University, March 15, 2007
[11] Empowerment Evaluation, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, David Fetterman and Abraham Wandersman, 180 American Journal of Evaluation / June 2007
[12] Empowerment Evaluation: Collaboration, Action Research, and a Case Example by David Fetterman,Stanford University
[13] Rita K. Noonan and Deborah Gibbs; Empowerment Evaluation With Programs Designed to Prevent First-Time Male Perpetration of Sexual Violence; Health Promotion Practice 2009; 10; 5S; Introduction to the Special Issue

[14] David M. Fetterman; Empowerment Evaluation: Building Communities of Practice and a Culture of Learning, American Journal of Community Psychology;Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2002 ,
[15] Using empowerment evaluation to improve community-based programs; presentation made by Dr June Lennie at the AES lunchtime seminar, Brisbane, 14 September 2005
[16] Empowerment Evaluation: Collaboration, Action Research, and a Case Example by David Fetterman,Stanford University

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