The Community Development Foundation in its handbook ‘
A framework for evaluating community
development’ set out the following series of steps for communities planning for change.
1 Determine the stakeholders in your initiative;
2 Agree the vision of how you intend things to change in relation to a chosen list of
elements that relate to the dimensions of
community empowerment and the
quality of
community life.
3 State the outputs you can achieve and the wider
outcomes you intend them to lead to.
Outputs are things that are done. Outcomes are measurements of how close the work
brings you to your overriding objective.
4 Give attention to precisely how the outputs and outcomes will be delivered. This
requires agreement about different stakeholders'
inputs (resources used), and
processes
(methods of working), to be adopted and specific outputs to be delivered. This step
concerns how agencies and community groups will be engaged in the achievement of
change, the level of investment that will be made, and by whom.
5 Agree how the delivery will be assessed. Though ultimately community achievement
must be measured by its outcomes, it is essential to know what the relationship is
between the methods used, the investment made, and the outcomes which result. The
evaluation therefore needs to encompass assessment of the inputs, processes and
outputs. Inputs should be quantified and monitored for quality; the outputs of the
processes adopted should be measurable and time-scaled.
To help the new volunteers to get involved with planning, the analogy of making an apple pie was
used.
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The objective in making the pie is to provide a pleasurable eating experience. This is the
desired outcome and it is measured (monitored) by its taste.
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To make an apple pie needs certain
inputs: the motivation of the cook, the recipe, the
ingredients, and the availability of an oven. The quality of each of these will have a
significant impact on the quality of the final product.
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The process of making the pie includes, following the recipe, preparing the apples,
mixing the pastry, setting the oven and baking the pie for the required time at the
required temperature. Again the quality of these processes will affect the result.
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The output is the pie itself.
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The outcome is the result of the pie i.e. the meal is the main feature of the pie-making
management plan. The eating of the pie is in fact the objective of managing its
production, and the properties of the pie, i.e. its state or condition, determine the quality
of the eating experience. A performance indicator would be whether or not the pie is
eaten.
Thinking about making apple pies helps in understanding the ideas behind planning and
evaluation. In particular, the analogy helps clarify what outcomes a community was hoping to
achieve and the way in which they would develop activities, which could help them happen. In
turn this would be likely to lead to a feedback review of who the stakeholders should be, and
whether the process was adequate to achieve the desired outcome. The plan may well
change as a result of this feedback. The planners adapt to their achievements and this is
sometimes described as adaptive management.
