Praxis Note 15. ‘Quick and Dirty’ Evaluation of Capacity Building

A couple of years ago I was asked to document and evaluate a capacity building process that had taken place in the Tangababwe Red Cross Society (TRCS). The aim of the exercise was two-fold:

1. to write up the change process as a case study for TRCS and other Red Cross societies to learn from.
2. to begin the process of assessing the impact of the work.

With only three days to collect all the data I had a considerable methodological challenge. This Praxis Note describes my response to the challenge in the hope that it will stimulate ideas and show that even ‘quick and dirty’ evaluations can prove useful – and are certainly better than nothing. All too frequently our laudable efforts to ensure methodological rigour and validity in our evaluation of capacity building processes end up in endless planning and eventually impossible budgets and time commitments.