Using a participatory evaluation framework for building evaluation capacity in youth houses in Morocco

Youth houses in Morocco are public institutions that focus on the integration of Moroccan youth in the social and economic fabric of society. The Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports made evaluation a pivotal component of its 2030 vision. Yet, it does not involve any mandates for internal evaluations. Given the fierce competition for grants and efforts for more financial accountability, funders now require organizations to be able to conduct internal evaluations. This makes building evaluation capacity for Dar Chababs an important step towards better practice, more funding and effective participation in the national evaluation mandate. Building evaluation capacity in organizations through workshops, guides, trainings, participatory evaluation, and external evaluators has become increasingly critical. One of the least explored approaches is the participatory framework. This study carried out a participatory evaluation in 3 youth houses in a city in Morocco over a period of 5 months to examine its effects on evaluation capacity building at the individual, program and organizational levels. A mixed methods approach with concurrent triangulation design was adopted to analyze quantitative and qualitative data. A repeated measures t-test was used to analyze pre and post evaluation data. Results suggest participatory approach has significant effect on 9 of the 11 constructs of Evaluation Capacity Building. Fieldnote and interview data validate the quantitative results indicating that relationships with stakeholders, organizational support and focus on participation are key to evaluation and capacity building. Data also suggest that sharing control of the process and joint decision making were important principles of the participatory approach that led to significant levels of evaluation capacity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Zemmahi, Hicham

Contributors dc:contributor

• McCarthey, Sarah
• Dressman, Mark
• Hood, Stafford
• Witt, Allison
• Miller, James

• youth houses, Morocco, Dar Chabab, Evaluation, Participatory Evaluation, Logic Model

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Zemmahi Hicham

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109384

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109384