The evaluation should be participatory, involving the specific communities through participatory methods and possibly include the community in the actual decision making within the evaluation process. This concept applies for both the rural community and other communities for which outputs are intended: the community of researchers, the policy community, etc. An example of participation from the rural community point of view involves the community establishing criteria that they feel is relevant to indicate specific change--that is criteria to shape and direct the evaluation.

The case is often made that communities are not able to reflect on their own processes and change, and thus the justification for external evaluation. However, because the larger Project engaged the community from the beginning, the process of evaluation should be no different. As well, as suggested by Bietz (MCC), communities may already have their own mechanisms for evaluation (be it the policy community, a group of extension workers, etc.). To ignore these mechanisms would be counter productive to the task of evaluation.

Participatory traditions of evaluations,

deliberately seek to include the human, social, political, cultural and contextual elements involved in human endeavor. They are based on the understanding that reality is not a given actuality waiting to be discovered by the detached scientist, but a constructed understanding -- an informed perception -- developed by those engaged in the activity under scrutiny (Jiggins 1995: 61).

Jiggins contrasts the "technocratic" and participatory traditions and summarizes their differences in philosophic underpinnings and outlooks (Table 1).

Table 1: The contrasting traditions of technocratic and participatory traditions in evaluation.

Universalistic ethic

Deductive

Uses only externalized knowledge

Technocratic working method

Objective

Factual

Data-based

Reductionist

Positivist

Outsiders' perspectives

Expert

Judgment-oriented

Excludes or subsumes values, principles

Assumes a controlled, experimental framework

Pluralistic ethic

Inductive

Uses externalized and tacit knowledge

Democratic working method

Subjective

Normative, interpretive

Stories, narrative

Holistic, naturalistic

Constructivist

Stakeholders' perspectives

Facilitator

Negotiation-oriented

Includes, makes explicit participants' values, principles

Assumes a political process

Source: Jiggins 1995: 61.