Doing a truly participatory evaluation, Mexico
The Alliance and its linking organization Colectivo Sol supported a full-scale evaluation of its five-year Mexico programme to build the organisational capacity of NGOs and community groups involved in HIV/AIDS. The programme worked in eight states and at two levels: training eight resource organisations, in subjects such as external relations and strategic planning, and 11 ‘training of trainers’ courses; and supporting the resource organisations to repeat core areas of the training, with 122 groups, through 41 workshops and 57 support visits.
The year-long participatory evaluation involved a series of workshops and focused on the programme’s impact, both on individual leaders and entire organisations. It was managed by a core team, including people living with HIV/AIDS, and involved 60 participants from all levels (from community groups to the National AIDS Programme) and at all stages (from selecting questions to analysing findings).
The evaluation produced important findings – for example that the Alliance’s model of combining technical support with small grants had successfully built up skills and had also helped both to unite existing groups (by encouraging solidarity) and catalyse new ones (inside and outside of the capital). As one of the participants said: “The Alliance has shown us that we must involve more people in the HIV/AIDS field, establishing relationships not only with those working in the HIV/AIDS environment, but with a wider range of social actors.”
Meanwhile, there were also important lessons about the evaluation itself. For example, within a large-scale process it is important to keep designs simple, clarify roles and have good relations between experts and activists.
The results will inform a new programme working in four states in the central region of the country, supporting new groups and leaders, with a focus on reducing stigma and discrimination.
