Reflections on Empowerment Evaluation

Learning from Experience

Abstract

Empowerment evaluation (EE) is the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. It employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Although it can be applied to individuals, organizations, communities, and societies or cultures, the focus is usually on programs. A wide range of programs use EE, including substance abuse prevention, indigent health care, welfare reform, battered women’s shelters, adolescent pregnancy prevention, individuals with disabilities, doctoral programs, and accelerated schools. This approach has been institutionalized within the American Evaluation Association since its introduction in 1993 and is consistent with the spirit of the standards developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. Empowerment evaluation has become a worldwide phenomenon, its acceptance in part a function of timing. Evaluators were already using forms of participatory self-assessment or were prepared to use it because it represented the next logical step. Funders and clients were focusing on program improvement and capacity building. A critical match between people and common interests was made with an underlying and often implicit commitment to fostering self-determination. Widespread use of this evaluation approach was also a result of its appearance on the Internet.