9-22
THE LIMITATIONS OF EVALUATION
The long-range impact of a training course can never be fully measured or known.
The human factors in a health worker’s training and work may, in the long run, be
what influence the people’s well-being most. But these human factors may only
affect health statistics years later. The seeds the health worker plants deepest may
not produce fruit until after he or she is dead and gone. Humanity moves forward
slowly!
It is not the number of latrines built or babies weighed that determines a health worker’s
effectiveness. Rather it is the people’s growing awareness of their ability to meet their
needs for themselves. In the long run, health is determined more by human qualities than
by physical quantities. Evaluation that focuses largely on numbers often tends to forget
this.
When conducting an evaluation, remember that
UNITY CAN BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN NUMBERS.
EVALUATING EVALUATION
We need to ask of the evaluation process the same searching questions that we
continually ask about each aspect of our training or health program:
• Does it strengthen the voice of the powerless? Does it help lead to greater
decision making, control, and self-reliance on the part of those who have less?
(whether students, villagers, workers, etc.)
• Does it encourage trust, responsibility, and greater equality among all concerned?
(teachers, students, health workers, mothers, advisers, etc.)
• Does it help equip people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and
examples they need to understand and work together to solve their
biggest needs?
• Does it consider the group’s long-term goals, or vision, as well as short-term
objectives?
Evaluation should not only measure whether we have
achieved our goals. It should help us judge whether
our goals were appropriate in the first place.