(PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

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These key issues were presented to senior USAID and CRS officials
and agreed upon in separate meetings on June 8, 1987 just prior to the
team's field investigation.
In discussions with USAID/India regarding its expectatiou of
this evaluation mission, the team was asked to make recommendations
which would "help USAID be helpful to CRS".
1.2 The Approach of the Team to this Evaluation
The team's approach to this evaluation ,was a collaborative
approach from the beginning.
During its 4-day Team Planning (June 4 - 8, 1987), the team
provided two briefings to CRS and to USAID, on June 5th and June 8th,
for the purpose of soliciting CRS and USAID expectations of the
evaluation, as well as their reactions on input regarding the team's
evaluation approach and interview instruments (see Appendix B).
As a standard procedure in its field visits to the CRS zonal
offices, and to consignees and project holders, the team members
provided a briefing at the start of each visit, and a debriefing at
the conclusion of each visit. The intention of this approach was to
ensure that information gathered through interviews at each level of
program operations - project site, project holder, consignee, CRS
zonal office - was shared laterally. Sharing team observations and
information as such not only enabled team members to check their
findings for accuracy, but also enabled CRS and its counterparts to be
active partizipants in the "learning process" of the evaluation.
At the conclusion of the team's field investigation, a 1-day
seminar was held on July 1, 1987, for 12 representatives of the four
CRS zonal offices and the New Delhi central office. The purpose of
this seminar was to enable the CRS organization to arrive at a common
understanding of FFW program issues and at appropriate measures to
address them. The outcomes of this seminar are an integral part of
this evaluation report, and its recommendations for program
improvement. (See Appendix C.)
In sun, the intention of the FFW evaluation team and its
collaborative approach to this mission was to ensure that CRS and its
counterparts felt a sense of participation in and ownership of the
evaluation recommendations. The hoped for outcome of this approach is
a "successful" evaluation - one in which the recommendations are
valued and implemented.