Guide to Project Evaluation:  A Participatory Approach

Chapter 8: Using Evaluation Results

The fifth and final key evaluation question in the framework is, "How do we plan to use evaluation findings for continuous learning?" This is a question that needs to be considered at the very beginning of a project and not only at the end, as is often the case. Having ideas at the start of a project about uses for the evaluation findings helps ensure that the evaluation is conducted and the results reported in a way that meets people's needs. If key stakeholders are involved from the beginning, it increases their support for the process and their likelihood of using the results as they become available.

There are several major ways in which project evaluations can be used to maximize their benefit. A few ideas are listed below.

8.1 Using evaluation results

• Bring together all project staff on a quarterly basis to discuss the evaluation results and look at ways the results can be used to increase performance, improve project administration, enhance planning activities, etc.
• Present the report orally to staff, funders and community members.
• Develop a news release outlining the main learnings from the evaluation and some of its more important conclusions. Send the news releases to key community contacts and evaluation participants.
• Involve project participants in developing ways to present the project findings. Build on their stories and personal experiences to give a human face and to create interest in the evaluation results.
• Make a presentation on the evaluation results to the local health council or social planning group, highlighting the accomplishments and describing how the results can be used to promote better planning.
• Use the evaluation results to shape requests for new or continued funding or for suggesting alternative health practice models.
• At the start of each new project proposal process, review evaluations from past projects to discover what learnings are transferable.
• Send a letter thanking all project participants for their work on the project and include a summary copy of the key evaluation results.
• Develop a short video of project participants discussing what they learned from the project. Use it to promote the project with community groups and with funders.
• Build the evaluation results into presentations to local service clubs to show how their funding support could be effectively used.
• Commit 15 minutes of time at meetings to information sharing about key learnings from project evaluations.
• Extract highlights of project evaluation reports and distribute them regularly.
• Develop a workshop to present the project evaluation results at a regional or national conference of health promotion professionals.
• Identify other projects that are doing related work and share evaluation reports with them.
• Organize a brainstorming session involving staff to come up with creative ideas to document and promote project successes.
• Develop a user-friendly yearly summary of key evaluation results from across projects. Include ideas for using the results to strengthen planning and distribute the summary to key stakeholders.
• Make presentations to other health care practitioners, using project evaluation results to show how they can benefit from involvement in health promotion work.
• Systematically review and summarize all project evaluation results on a twice-yearly basis. Use the evidence-based outcomes to develop and improve health practice models.

Table of Contents