Realworld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints

Part 1. The RealWorld Evaluation Approach
Chapter 1. Overview: RealWorld Evaluation and the Contexts in Which It Is Used
Chapter 2. [Step 1] Scoping the Evaluation: First clarify the purpose
Chapter 3. [Step 2] Budget Constraints: Not enough money
Chapter 4. [Step 3] Time Constraints: Addressing scheduling and other time constraints
Chapter 5. [Step 4] Data Constraints: Critical information is missing or difficult to collect
Chapter 6. [Step 5] Addressing Political Influences: Reconciling different priorities and perspectives
Chapter 7. [Step 6] Strengthening the Evaluation Design and the Validity of Conclusions
Chapter 8. [Step 7] Making it Useful: Helping clients and other stakeholders use the evaluation findings and recommendations
Part 2. A Review of Evaluation Methods and Approaches and their Application in RealWorld Evaluation: For those who would like to dig deeper on particular evaluation topics
Chapter 9. Ensuring competent and ethical practice in the conduct of the evaluation
Chapter 10. Theory-based evaluation
Chapter 11. Evaluation designs
Chapter 12. Quantitative evaluation approaches
Chapter 13. Qualitative evaluation approaches
Chapter 14. Mixed method evaluations
Chapter 15. Sampling
Chapter 16. Evaluating complex, multi-component development interventions
Part 3. Organizing and Managing Evaluations and Strengthening Evaluation Capacity: For readers involved with the funding and management of evaluations
Chapter 17. Organizing and managing evaluations
Chapter 18. Strengthening evaluation capacity
Chapter 19. Conclusions and challenges and the road ahead

Michael Bamberger has been involved in development evaluation for fifty years. Beginning in Latin America where he worked in urban community development and evaluation for over a decade, he became interested in the coping strategies of low-income communities, how they were affected by and how they influenced development efforts. Most evaluation research fails to capture these survival strategies, frequently underestimating the resilience of these communities - particularly women and female-headed households. During 20 years with the World Bank he worked as monitoring and evaluation advisor for the Urban Development Department, evaluation training coordinator with the Economic Development Department and Senior Sociologist in the Gender and Development Department. After retiring from the Bank in 2001 he has worked as a development evaluation consultant with more than 10 UN agencies as well as development banks, bilateral development agencies, NGOs and foundations. Since 2001 he has been on the faculty of the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET). Recent publications include: (with Jim Rugh and Linda Mabry) RealWorld Evaluation: Working under budget, time, data and political constraints (2012 second edition); (with Marco Segone) How to design and manage equity focused evaluations (2011); Engendering Monitoring and Evaluation ( 2013 ); (with Linda Raftree) Emerging opportunities: Monitoring and evaluation in a tech-enabled world (2014); (with Marco Segone and Shravanti Reddy) How to integrate gender equality and social equity in national evaluation policies and systems (2014).

"Best text I've found for introducing evaluation design AND critical thinking, especially as it relates to current and generally accepted practice, as well as the crucial grounding in real world concerns."