Feedback Mechanisms as Evaluation – A

Definition
 Information about constituents’ PERCEPTIONS of a set of activities and their
impact
 Save the Children proposed a definition of feedback as:
“… a positive or negative statement of opinion about… programmes and the
behaviour of… staff and representatives shared for information or action but
not with the intention of lodging a formal complaint. Depending on the nature
or seriousness of the feedback, however, the organisation itself may need to
take the same action as if the feedback were a complaint.”

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 REASONS FOR ESTABLISHING A FEEDBACK MECHANISM

• Accountability and Rights: Some organisations implement feedback

mechanisms to comply with internal or external requirements and standards.
Others seek feedback out of respect for beneficiaries’ rights, including the right
to have a voice and be heard
• Transparency and Trust: Feedback mechanisms offer beneficiaries the
opportunity to approach an organisation to ask questions and receive a response,
increasing their understanding of the program, reducing potential tensions and
potentially developing their trust in the organisation
• Empowerment and Participation: Most organisations see feedback and
complaint mechanisms as promoting community empowerment and participation

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 CONT’
• Monitoring and Evaluation: In a few cases, feedback and complaints
mechanisms have been observed to help improve monitoring and evaluation
activities by feeding beneficiaries’ views and perspectives into monitoring,
assessment and reporting practices
• Programme or Project Improvement: Another of the expected benefits that
motivate agencies to establish a feedback mechanism is that they can provide
‘unique and invaluable sources of information to be used for better project
management and outcomes’
• Early Warning Mechanism: Feedback mechanisms are also expected to help
organisations identify issues and risks early and address them in a timely manner
before they become larger and more difficult and expensive to manage or resolve

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Context of key terms under evaluation
Key Term Context
1 Efficiency Refers to input in terms of resources into
the work as it relates to its
appropriateness in terms of the output.
2 Effectiveness Is a measure of the extent to which a
programme or project achieves the
specific objectives that were set for it. It
is usually based on the question of
completion of the undertaking.
3 Impact Tells you whether or not what you did
made a difference to the problem
situation you were trying to address

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Context of key terms under evaluation
cont…..
Key Term Context
4 Relevance Provides an indication of the extent to
which the objectives are relevant to the
needs of citizens, County policy
specifications, and national priorities.
5 Sustainability serves as a measure of the extent to
which the benefits arising from an
intervention are likely to continue after
implementation has been completed.

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Challenges with respect to e – culturing
evaluation process from a county context
Challenge Causes
1 Poor funding for - Lack of political good will
evaluation - Lack of proper understanding of the
importance of M & E
2 Lack of ownership - Lack of understanding of the M & E
of the M&E process evaluation methodology and process
or results.
3 Poor adoption of - Mistrust and suspicion particularly with
the available M&E respect to CIMES.
framework:
4 Poor legal backing - Lack of a legal framework that specifically
for evaluation: requires policies, programs and projects to
be evaluated.

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Challenges with respect to e – culturing
evaluation process from a county context cont….
Challenge Causes
5 Defective - lack of clearly defined parameters of
management culture measurements of impact
of public servants - lack of focus on measurement of impact
- lack of culture of continuous improvement and
culture of coordination.
6 Poor reporting - Tendency to report for compliance reasons
culture (rather than to use the reports to analyse
progress against key indicators and identify
ways of doing things better to improve
impact).
- Biased reports that exclude negative feedback
and complaints.

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