Approaches for Monitoring and Evaluation of PSO

Authors:

  • Jan Frelin
  • Anders Noren

Publish date: 2016-06-22

Report number: FOI-R--4275--SE

Pages: 70

Written in: English

Keywords:

  • Evaluation
  • Peace Support Operations
  • PSO
  • Utilization Focused Evaluation
  • UFE
  • Complexity
  • Performance Measure
  • Goal Free Evaluation

Abstract

This report summarizes the findings of a project that FOI conducted between 2010 and 2013 to investigate evaluation approaches that might be helpful in evaluating peace support operations. The approaches that were investigated were Utilization Focused Evaluation, The OECD DAC Guidance on Evaluating Peacebuilding Activities in Settings of Conflict and Fragility, Goal-Free evaluation, Performance Measurement, Complexity theory, and the Crises Management Four-Square. These methods and approaches were tested in evaluation work and desk studies, all focused on military peace support operations. The main findings: ? Evaluative thinking has wide applicability in many types of studies, not just those called evaluations. ? Abductive inference is the most general approach to come to terms with cause and effect issues in qualitative and mixed-method evaluations. ? Utilization-Focused Evaluation has wide applicability and should be considered in any kind of evaluation assignment. ? The OECD criteria for peace-building enlarges the scope for issues should be considered in the evaluation of a peace support operations. ? Conflict analysis is an important tool for evaluations of peace support operations. ? Theories of change can be used to both guide an evaluation to intended objectives and to uncover the concepts underpinning an intervention. ? Goal-Free evaluations help uncover unintended effects of interventions. ? No successful application of performance measurement in peace support operations has been identified.