Finally, after you have accessed and collected your required information, you should be able to answer questions about the type and quality of information that it gives.

  • Does the information collected meet your wants/needs? Does it provide you with evidence about whether you have achieved your target indicator for the specific objective?
  • Does it contain primary data (e.g. from a survey) or is it a compilation or evidence prepared for a different purpose?
  • What main concepts do you present in the information? How is it you collate/interpret the evidence?
  • What facts or opinions do you present? Do these represent more than one point of view? What are the major findings? Are the facts supportive of these?
  • Do any other available sources substantiate the conclusions drawn from this source?

Key Resource

You can read further on what makes ‘good evidence’ on the Better Evaluation website, for example: https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/resources/research-paper/what_counts_as_good_evidence

Capsule: Using our toolbox of alternative information collection approaches, we need to ensure we collect information that is relevant, accurate, complete, reliable and targeted. We must question our information collection throughout the process to be sure that collected evidence is adequate for our various needs.

SELF STUDY Q5.7

Identify five important considerations when deciding how we can ensure we collect only ‘good’ information throughout our evaluation journey?