Pathfinder International Tool Series: Monitoring and Evaluation "A case study is a story about something unique, special, or interesting stories can be about individuals, organizations, processes, programs, neighborhoods, institutions, and even events. The case study gives the story behind the result by capturing what happened to bring it about, and can be a good opportunity to highlight project success, or to bring attention to a particular challenge or difficulty in a project."

Pathfinder International Tool Series Monitoring and Evaluation - 2 "In-depth interviewing is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation. They are useful when you want detailed information about thoughts and behaviors or want to explore new issues in depth. Interviews are often used to provide context to other data (such as outcome data), offering a more complete picture of what happened in the program and why."

"This Guide has been written to help project managers and M&E staff improve the quality of M&E in IFAD-supported projects. The Guide focuses on how M&E can support project management and engage project stakeholders in understanding project progress, learning from achievements and problems, and agreeing on how to improve both strategy and operations."

Pathfinder International Tool Series Monitoring and Evaluation - 3 "Mystery clients are trained people (usually community members) who visit program facilities in the assumed role of clients, and then report (by completing a survey or through an interview) on their experience. They might be used in an effort to avoid the bias in the service delivery process that often results from having service transactions observed. Mystery clients can also serve to gather a sufficient number of observations of service transactions when the actual volume of service visits is low."

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Series 2009 Authors: Hallie Preskill and Nathalie Jones

"AusGuide provides guidance on preparing and implementing high quality program strategies and initiatives. It supports the management of AusAID development programs and Australian Government initiatives delivered under those programs." This guide integrates monitoring and evaluation as part of the planning and implementation of program strategies and initiatives.

Basic Guide Handouts designed as Introduction to evaluation for those without technical backgrounds

"This document provides guidance toward basic planning and implementation of an outcomes-based evaluation process (also called outcomes evaluation) in nonprofit organizations. This document provides basic guidance -- particularly to small nonprofits with very limited resources. NOTE: This free, basic, on-line guide makes occasional references to certain pages in the United Way of America's book, Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach (1996). That United Way book is an excellent resource! However, it can be somewhat overwhelming for nonprofits that have very limited resources. This free on-line guide (that are reading now) can help nonprofits carry out their own basic outcomes evaluation planning. This on-line guide can also help small nonprofits to make the most of that United Way book -- however, you do not have to have that United Way book in order to carry out your own basic outcomes evaluation plan by using this on-line guide. "

"This document provides guidance toward planning and implementing an evaluation process for for-profit or nonprofit programs -- there are many kinds of evaluations that can be applied to programs, for example, goals-based, process-based, outcomes-based, etc. ... Note that the concept of program evaluation can include a wide variety of methods to evaluate many aspects of programs in nonprofit or for-profit organizations. There are numerous books and other materials that provide in-depth analysis of evaluations, their designs, methods, combination of methods and techniques of analysis. However, personnel do not have to be experts in these topics to carry out a useful program evaluation. The "20-80" rule applies here, that 20% of effort generates 80% of the needed results. It's better to do what might turn out to be an average effort at evaluation than to do no evaluation at all. (Besides, if you resort to bringing in an evaluation consultant, you should be a smart consumer. Far too many program evaluations generate information that is either impractical or irrelevant -- if the information is understood at all.) This document orients personnel to the nature of program evaluation and how it can be carried out in a realistic and practical fashion."

"APRIL 2005 ” Family Health International has released an important new resource for improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children. The guide, Conducting a Participatory Situation Analysis of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Guidelines and Tools, is a powerful tool that builds on experiences from FHI's work in the developing world. Conducting a situation analysis is a complex and delicate process. It gathers and analyzes information to guide planning and action. Done properly, it can help build consensus and among key stakeholders. Collecting data that is not directly linked to specific programs helps identify strengths and weaknesses in national and sub-national responses. Because this resource is focused on children, it features a special emphasis on ethical considerations for information-gathering. The six-chapter, 210-page guide offers sample consent forms, baseline surveys and interview guides, which can be adapted for local use. It was funded by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Reliefe through the U.S. Agency for International Development. It was written by Renee DeMarco with FHI's OVC Team. The accompanying French edition, released in April 2006, was prepared by the nongovernmental organization Plan International."