Field Guide for Evaluation: How to Develop an Effective Terms of Reference

Over time, evaluation has become increasingly important at Pact. An updated evaluation policy released in 2014 guides our programs in the requirements and expectations for evaluation. Module 3: Field Guide for Evaluation: How to Develop an Effective Terms of Reference, finalized in 2014 by our Results and Measurement team, provides a basic overview of evaluation concepts and gives those who commission and manage evaluations an overview of best practices for planning, implementing, and managing the overall process of an evaluation.

A slide set accompanying the module provides an opportunity to engage in practical exercises to test the skills outlined in this text.

How to Use This Module

A practical guide to managing and leading evaluation efforts, this module is designed for use in evaluations within your organization and among your partners. Increasing local capacity to conduct and manage good program evaluation is a key goal of the Results and Measurement team at Pact. The copyright under a Creative Commons agreement encourages you to use, remix, and adapt all Pact materials as you see fit, with attribution to Pact.

Each chapter’s learning objectives and exercises relate to sections of Pact’s evaluation protocol, and each chapter builds on the previous one. By the end of the module, if you have worked your way through the exercises, you should have a comprehensive, written plan for your evaluation— that is, a full terms of reference (TOR). In addition, a TOR template can be found in Appendix 1 (page 90). The shaded boxes that introduce and give an overview of each chapter refer to relevant sections of this template.

The closing pages of each chapter link you to the wealth of further resources available on the Internet. I encourage all practitioners to use these resources to keep your knowledge of evaluation up to date and growing, in order to deepen your practice and bring your increasing skills to the programs serving the communities we care about.