Large evaluations (for example implementation evaluations) generate robust findings, but are often costly to implement and can take a long time to complete. Rapid evaluations address the need to quickly assess policy/programme/strategy/function delivery, and establish the main performance data, with main recommendations for improvements, while at the same time reducing the costs and time of evaluation projects. They are also strongly associated with teamwork, quick assessments, and flexibility across relatively diverse exercises of evaluation enquiry. This webinar held on 3 June 2020 covers the following:
- Introduction to rapid evaluations, and their general purpose amongst other approaches to evaluation.
- The approach and methodology of rapid evaluations.
- The benefits and limitations of rapid evaluations, and the general value offering of rapid evaluations.
- Two case studies of recent (2019-2020) rapid evaluation approaches:
- A rapid assessment of the readiness of State-Owned Enterprises in South Africa to take on board the evaluation function, and their inclusion in the national evaluation system
- A rapid evaluation of the DPME evaluation training courses delivered 2012-2018 to national and provincial departments, and Offices of the Premiers
Presenter: Antonio Hercules for DPME and CLEAR-AA
Antonio Hercules is a highly experienced evaluator, development consultant and trainer. He has undertaken some 36 evaluations over the last 20 years, more recently including two rapid evaluations, two country-level implementation evaluations in South Africa, capacity development and evaluation policy development. Over the last two years, he has continued to support national and provincial government departments (DPME, NSG, DSD, DOT, WCPG amongst others) in the execution and development of their evaluation and planning functions and advised on the extension of the evaluation function to State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
He served for five years in the Presidency (DPME) South Africa (2013-2018), responsible for some 15 national evaluations, managed capacity building in support of the national evaluation system and contributed directly to the generalized take-up of theory of change in the public sector at large, including its use in the country’s medium-term planning system. He is presently thinking about the evaluation in the age of a global pandemic, involved in a small company called Rapideval, and is participating in a project to produce Green Procurement Guidelines for South Africa.