Choosing the evaluator

The choice of evaluators depends on whether the evaluation is commissioned externally or conducted in-house and the implications of this.

Having a clear idea about the internal available resources and capacities for the evaluation will influence selection of the most appropriate evaluation approach.

It may be useful to undertake a scoping or feasibility study to support this decision making process. This can foster greater understanding of what can and cannot be evaluated at the specific point in time, and therefore what level of investment as well as of capacities is required internally to determine whether the task should be assigned with an external evaluator or not.

Commissioning the evaluation exercise partly or wholly to external evaluators might also serve the purpose of safeguarding objectivity.

Evaluations, whether conducted internally or externally, will often require significant input to ensure they are designed and delivered successfully. For larger evaluations involving dedicated data collection, this will generally require an appropriate internal project manager with the relevant skills to oversee the evaluation, a supporting team and a steering group to govern the evaluation.