Do External Evaluations Improve Programs ?

The author draws on previous research on evaluation use to identify and analyse what is already known about how evaluations might change the working of and consequently, the performance of the evaluated programs. It is concluded that despite abundant knowledge about evaluation use, theoretical and empirical, there is limited conceptual knowledge and next to no empirical evidence for when and how evaluations actually produce real improvements to the results delivered by evaluated programs (called ‘consequences of use’ in the paper).