Summative Evaluations
A summative evaluation is another way to refer to an evaluation method that judges the worth of a program at the end of program activities. At the end of your IPC program, it will be important to report on program success to donors, back to PSI, and/or to others in the public health or social marketing communities. Carrying out a summative evaluation will allow you to demonstrate program successes, challenges, and lessons learned. The following steps highlight the importance of and potential uses for summative evaluation findings.
- Determine if program objectives have been achieved
Summative evaluations examine whether an implemented program has successfully achieved its predetermined goals and objectives. Interventions are evaluated for impact on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Can be built into existing M&E
A thorough M&E program can make the conduction of a summative evaluation quite simple, as summative evaluations can be built into the existing M&E plan. This can significantly reduce the cost.
- Can utilize qualitative or quantitative data
Typically quantitative assessments are best for large scale interventions, or any program that has baseline & follow-up data. Qualitative research can provide additional anecdotal evidence and explanations for behavior changes.
- Proof of success
A summative evaluation allows insight into what worked and what did not. It can also inform as to cost-effectiveness. Many donors will require such information.
- Results applied to future programming
The successes and failures of a program as determined by a summative evaluation will provide insight to future IPC program planners. As projects evolve, target populations acquire new knowledge and behaviors and their communication needs change. Monitoring and evaluation studies should lead directly to modifications of BCC strategies, messages and approaches, and potentially to the overall program.
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