Chasing a ghost? An essay on participatory evaluation and capacity development

UNESCO has high ambitions with respect to the use of evaluation. But for evaluation to flourish it has to be valued and understood in the whole organization, not only by top management and the specialized evaluation service. There are many ways to foster evaluation capacity; one approach is to involve stakeholders in evaluation processes so they can learn by doing. This essay describes how an external evaluation of UNESCO's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic was designed to encourage capacity development through participation. Learning did occur, but not where it was expected to occur, and not to the extent hoped for. The authors found that practical issues, such as timing, skills, team composition, structure of budgets, and incentive systems, must be designed for capacity development so that the learning process becomes an explicit and realistic goal; good intentions do not suffice, as many other pressures arise during an evaluation.