PREVAL

RATIONALE

PREVAL arose from the need to address the limited expertise in evaluation of rural development projects in the Region; and the fact that training opportunities in evaluation are often limited and, in many cases, inadequate.

PREVAL intends to narrow the gap between demand and supply on evaluation of rural development projects. Thus, the major arguments that justify and support PREVAl are the following:

1. the limited availability of professionals and institutions specializing in project evaluation in the Region;
2. the scarcity of training opportunities and limited access to technical assistance services;
3. the need to review existing publications in the evaluation field and assess their validity and pertinence as regards the processes of change facing the Region.

BACKGROUND

PREVAL is the result of a Cooperation Agreement signed in late 1995 by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

WHAT ARE PREVAL MAIN OBJECTIVES

Goal: To strengthen institutional capabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean for the evaluation of projects aimed at alleviating rural poverty.

In order to achieve this, PREVAL has set forth the following specific objectives:

1. To develop a network of trained professionals in the evaluation of rural poverty alleviation projects and in the design of monitoring and evaluation systems;
2. To produce reference documents and training materials;
3. To develop a knowledge base on evaluation in Latin America and the Caribbean;
4. To strenghten IICA's evaluation capabilities and those of other institutions in the Region.

AT WHOM IS PREVAL TARGETED?

1. Sub-regional, national and local institutions that specialize and/or are interested in developing their capabilities in evaluation of rural development projects; and IICA.
2. Professional personnel of rural development projects financed by IFAD and other organizations.

PRINCIPLE COMPONENTS AND SUBJECT AREAS:

a) Applied Research: Case studies on relevant experiences in evaluation; methodological guides and training materials; compilation and revision of existing material on evaluation of rural development projects.

b) Training: international training for trainers courses; technical assistance and complementary resources for national courses.

c) Dissemination: publication and distribution of materials compiled of generated by PREVAL; establishment of an electronic network; publication of a biannual bulletin.

· PREVAL will focus its efforts on the following SUBJECT AREAS:

a) methodologies for participatory evaluation;

b) base studies;

c) organizational development;

d) rural financial services;

e) training;

f) private technical assistance services;

g) gender;

h) indigenous peoples;

PROGRESS MADE AS OF DECEMBER 1997

Regional Events

· Electronic Workshop on Evaluation of Rural Poverty Alleviation Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean: This event took place from September 22 to October 31, 1997 with the participation of 172 professionals from Latin America, Canada, the United States, Spain, Sweeden, the United Kingdom, France and Angola. The Electronic Workshop objective was to promote the exchange of information and experiences at the regional level with a view to drawing lessons and proposing better methods for the evaluation of rural poverty alleviation projects. Six case studies and one essay were presented.

· III Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation for Projects Financed by IFAD in Central America, Panama, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela (Antigua, Guatemala, April 1997): This event was carried out in a joint effort with the RUTA III Project.

· Meeting of Evaluators of Rural Development Projects (Lima, Peru, October 1996): This event laid the groundwork for the creation of a Latin American network of evaluators.

Publications *

· Annotated Evaluation Bibliography: Includes bibliographic references and content summaries of 105 documents on evaluation of rural development projects. This publication is available in two versions: Spanish and English (US$12.00 including mailing costs).

· Glossary of Key Terms for Evaluation of Rural Development Projects: Bilingual publication (English and Spanish): Includes the definition of 170 terms or categories of analysis frequently used in evaluation. (US$10.00 excluding mailing costs)

· Proceedings of the Meeting of Evaluators of Rural Development Projects: (in Spanish) presentations, discussions, round tables, results of the work groups, conclusions and recommendations. (Free distribution)

Case Studies

· Monitoring and Evaluation System: Geared towards identifying better practices for monitoring and evaluation of rural development projects. This case study is based upon the experience of the Cuchumatanes Rural Development Project (Guatemala).

· Evaluation and Gender (in progress): Results will yield a methodological proposal for the evaluation of gender aspects, and for carrying out evaluations from an equal gender perspective. This study uses the following text as a frame of reference; Core Evaluation Guidelines on Gender Issues, IFAD. November 1995.

Other Activities

· Electronic Network on Evaluation: The network aims to exchange information, methodologies, experiences, publications, etc. related to project evaluation. To date, the Network consists of approximately 118 professionals and institutions involved with actitivities on project evaluation. The Network is implemented with technical assistance from FIDAMERICA.

· Specialized Documentation Centre on Evaluation: contains over 350 documents related to project evaluation.

· Needs Assessment on Training: This activity was carried out with the collaboration of IFAD programmes and projects in the Region.

· Preliminary Directory of Institutions and Professionals involved in evaluation: Up to date the Directory consists of 191 records of professionals from Latin America, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Sweeden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Now you can got to PREVAL's (Spanish language) web page at http://www.fidamerica.cl/preval.htm, or contact Ada Ocampo, mentioning MandE NEWS as your initial source of information about PREVAL. Or you can return to MandE NEWS

Mande NEWS: Preval moved to this new address on January 19th 1998. Since then there have been visits to this page. See MandE Statistics for more details of the usage of MandE NEWS.