The external evaluators are coming to evaluate a program, but the program manager has been unprepared and has not collected all required monitoring data. There are two options - defensive avoidance, which will make the process difficult, or engagement and co-opting the evaluators. The document recommends killing the evaluators with kindness, setting terms of engagement, tapping into their expertise, treating them as allies, and asking for preliminary recommendations. This approach will make the evaluators perceive the program positively and provide useful recommendations to improve it.

1. The External Evaluators Are Coming:
Turning the Process Around
So It Works for You
Laura Roper
Roper LYV Consulting

2. You wake up at 3 a.m. from a nightmare
The external evaluators are coming!
You’ve been DREADING it

3. The program is going great, but
• the donor kept pushing you to add on indicators in
your log frame and you’ve only been collecting data
on a third of them;
• you couldn’t adapt the data base to include all the
data you are collecting, so even much of that isn’t
entered;
• it hasn’t been a priority, because you have the basic
data you need and you know everything is on course
• but you know it will look bad to the external
evaluators

4. That email you ignored is waiting for you asking....
...for documents, about logistics, about the schedule

5. You have a choice.
You can go into the defensive avoidance
or
You can engage and co-opt

6. What’s defensive avoidance?
You send documents at the last minute or not at all
• The evaluators are kept waiting at the airport,
because you didn’t remind the driver to get them
• When they arrive at the office, you keep them waiting
for 20 minutes, suddenly caught up with an email
• You apologize, explaining the demands on your time,
how busy the staff is and how bad the timing of the
evaluation is
• You’ve only arranged a few of the meetings, but
promise you’ll set up the rest this afternoon (along
with getting the rest of the documentation), and offer
them some desk space.
•

7. How do the evaluators perceive this?
• At best, you’re disorganized
• You’re might be incompetent
• You might have something to hide
• In any event, you’re going to make this hard, which will
waste a lot of time
• It’s going to be one of these exhausting adversarial
processes

8. But remember, external consultants are
humans too

9. Question your assumptions
You may think....
But maybe...
they’re just in it for the money
they’re really committed to your
issues
they’re here to find fault
they really want to see how you can
build on your successes
they were behind that
ridiculous log frame M&E
section
they actually don’t think log frames
are the best planning tool for your
type of organization
they don’t know enough about
the context and the challenges
you face to understand your
work
they have life and professional
experience that gives them good
insight
a quick fly-in won’t do justice to
the process
they argued with the donor about
the tight timeframe, but couldn’t
make any headway

10. 5 things you can do to engage and co-opt
• Kill them with kindness
• Set the terms of engagement
• Tap into their expertise
• Treat them like allies
• Ask for and weigh in on the preliminary
recommendations

11. Kill them with kindness
• Send them a welcome email as soon as you hear
they’ve been contracted; anticipate their request for
documents with attachments of key documents.
• Make arrangements promptly and send a ‘welcome
pack’ with basic information about arrival, currency,
contacts, and the hotel, send more documents;
• Have a welcome folder at the hotel, with the schedule
for the stay, a hard copy of the welcome pack, and a
note (perhaps written on a card produced by local
artisans), and recommendations for local restaurants.

12. Set the terms of engagement, consider the following
• Meet with them first thing, set aside plenty of time,
be calm and in control, and set out your expectations
(this might include an orientation meeting with staff,
quick daily debriefs to be sure things are going
smoothly, and a one-on-one or team meeting at end of
the process)
• Next have a team meeting and set a tone of openness
and transparency (e.g. you might ask staff to introduce
themselves and share a thing they are most proud
about their work of and one of the biggest challenges
they face).

13. Set the terms of engagement, consider the following
• Ask the evaluators to do the same about their own
practice, while sharing their own background and
experience relevant to this assignment (you don’t want
them overwhelming you with their credentials);
• Ask them to explain the purpose of the evaluation, their
approach and what they hope to learn; ask questions.
• Then (having thought this out beforehand with staff), tell
them what would make this evaluation most useful for you,
while sharing with them your own monitoring, evaluation
and learning processes (formal and informal).

14. Tap into their expertise (it will be flattering and
could be useful). Ask them...
• To tell you about the most successful program like
yours that they’ve evaluated/worked with;
• What are the biggest challenges your type of program
faces and what, in their knowledge, works to overcome
those challenges;
• What resources, networks, experts they know of that
might be useful to your program;
All the while you (and your staff) should be sharing
your expertise, experience and insights

15. Treat them like allies
This can be delicate, but
• When the issue of the database comes up, ask them
their advice on what you should upgrade to, how much
it would cost, and do they think the donor would
finance it;
• When you are going over the indicators, share that
you felt pressured to add more and more and you’d
appreciate their help on identifying the key indicators
and negotiating with the donor.

16. Ask for preliminary recommendations
• Plan a debrief at the end of their visit;
• Set the tone by saying you’d love their thoughts on
findings and actionable recommendations that you
can be thinking about;
• Whatever they say, don’t be defensive, ask for more
information on their thinking before you object;
• Explain (for the document) that it is useful to get a
limited number of recommendations categorized by
time frame, ease of implementation, and or urgency.
• Thank them for their work; express interest in
staying in touch.

17. For the future, your best chance for exerting
control over the MEL process with donors is to
develop your own MEL strategy that is best
suited to the needs of your program and the
culture of the organization to improve your
negotiating position.

18. Laura Roper, Ph.D. runs Roper LYV Consulting
She is a general non-profit management consultant
with extensive experience in conducting
evaluations; design of monitoring, evaluation and
learning systems; and training on a range of MEL
topics and methods.
She can be reached at l.roper@rcn.com