Purpose and frequency of evaluation
Once monitoring data has been gathered and aggregated, it can support an evaluation of the community benefits package. The purposes of this are:
- To assess the impact and legacy being delivered through the package; the range of activity supported, the socio-economic benefits of this, and the extent to which these are delivering against the community action plan and/ or fund strategy
- To establish whether the community action plan and any fund strategy and disbursement processes are fit for purpose or require to be changed.
The latter may also require some understanding of any changes to the socio-economic context within the community, including priority needs and opportunities, and local capacity to address these. This is best gained through a participative approach to the evaluation involving those within the area of benefit, as outlined in the remainder of this module.
We would encourage an evaluation of the community benefits package at a frequency that is appropriate to its characteristics including size, demand on the package and frequency of distribution. For packages with a lot of disbursement activity, or during periods of rapid change in the local area, evaluations may be appropriate every two or three years. For others, less frequently.
