Measuring what matters: a chicken-egg problem in evaluation

“What matters” should determine what gets “measured” - not the other way round. But availability of evidence may constrain a practical set of criteria. How can we navigate this?

In program and policy evaluation, a sound evaluation design process should ensure that our work stays focused on what really counts, not just what’s easy to count. However, when evaluators come into a program mid-race (as so often happens), data collection decisions may have already been made. The available evidence may be constrained by legacy data sys…