Evaluation should be an asset for those being evaluated. Evaluation can impose a considerable time and resource burden on recipient institutions. IDRC evaluations should also generate information that can benefit the recipient institution. Evaluation is both science and art. The art of identifying critical issues to be evaluated, organizing them conceptually, and bringing the appropriate people to participate in the collection, interpretation, and utilization of the evaluation information is as important as the systematic collection and analysis of reliable data.
Evaluations are a means of negotiating different realities.
Evaluations should leave behind an increased capacity for using evaluation findings. Organizations need some level of internal evaluation capacity in order to be able to devise, participate in, or utilize evaluations effectively. Exclusive reliance on external expertise can limit an organization's ability to be clear and specific about its goals and to learn and apply lessons. Specific strategies can be built into evaluations, which are explicitly aimed at fostering these organizational characteristics. The Evaluation Unit has been developing a new approach for planning, monitoring and evaluating development research, called Outcome Mapping.