How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 69

essence, evaluation units are placing increased emphasis on results
orientation while maintaining traditional checks on use of inputs and
compliance with procedures. Lack of clarity on why evaluations for
accountability are carried out, and what purpose they are expected to
serve, contributes to their frequent lack of utility.
Moreover, if evaluations for accountability add only limited value,
resources devoted to documenting accountability can have a negative
effect, perversely enough. However, evaluation for learning is the area
where observers find the greatest need today and tomorrow, and
evaluation units should be retooled to meet it. Table 5 suggests how
work programs for evaluation might be reinterpreted to emphasize
organizational learning.

Evaluation capacity development promises much to the learning
organization, and should be an activity in which centralized evaluation
units have a comparative advantage. Capacity is the ability of people,
organizations, and society as a whole to manage their affairs
successfully; and capacity to undertake effective monitoring and
evaluation is a determining factor of aid effectiveness. Evaluation
capacity development is the process of reinforcing or establishing the
skills, resources, structures, and commitment to conduct and use
monitoring and evaluation over time. Many key decisions must be made
when starting to develop evaluation capacity internally in a strategic
way.4 Among the most important are:


Architecture. Locating and structuring evaluation functions and
their coordination.

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