Looking from a Local Place to Take the Long View in Evaluation

This chapter shows how four widely diverse evaluations achieved a longer perspective by altering their focus of the evaluation—away from the program to focusing on a space—or by addressing local actors, rather than responding to public or private organizations funding, regulating, or coordinating the interventions. The evaluations strayed beyond a narrow program focus and elongated their time perspective, regardless of whether this was explicitly asked by the Terms of Reference. The changes in focus or in partner helped keeping evaluations feasible and facilitated their dealing with the complexities of evaluating over the longer term: securing sufficient data across time; identifying beneficiaries; and discerning attribution or contribution. A longer time perspective opened up the opportunity to focus on change and required to think differently about values and criteria.