This handbook is a product of the EvalParticipativa initiative, promoted and coordinated by a team comprised of members of PETAS and DEval members. EvalParticipativa is a community of practice and learning for participatory evaluation that seeks to cultivate specialised knowledge gleaned from the experience of its members, and to examine in-depth examples of capacity building that use the approach.
The handbook is intended to reflect and explore the intense debates that emerged during the five days of the event. Some of the questions that sparked discussion there were:
• how can we ensure that the different social actors play an active and leading role in the evaluation of programmes or projects that affect them directly?;
• what conditions and mechanisms are required to facilitate the effective participation of the population in evaluation processes?; and
• what factors enable participation in evaluations of public policy and ensure stakeholder capacity to do so?
The proposals presented in this handbook build directly on the experiences of the members of this EvalParticipativa community of practice and learning.