Evaluability Assessment: A Tool for Incorporating Evaluation in Social Change Programmes

In this article we discuss the evaluation of a particular type of health promotion programme where social change is a central theme of programme development, implementation and evaluation. Evaluation of social change programmes requires a politics of accountability and a utilization focus. These require a process of planning evaluations that mirrors the process of programme planning and implementation. Such an approach must be open to the possibility that the demands on evaluation research may change over the lifecycle of the programme. We propose an evaluability assessment framework as a participatory tool for planning evaluations that meet the need for credible evaluative accounts of social change and contribute to social change. This framework is a tool that can be used at any time to plan and review evaluations.