horizontal evaluation methods used for small-scale farming r&d in the andes

very interesting article. full text: http://aje.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/28/4/493?ijkey=JsGA3J72L7l3I&keytype=ref&siteid=spaje

Horizontal evaluation is a type of participatory evaluation, following the definition of Cousins and Whitmore (1998) as one in which “researchers, facilitators, or professional evaluators collaborate in some way with individuals, groups, or communities who have a decided stake in the program, development project, or other entity being evaluated” (p. 5). Horizontal evaluation involves the key principles of participatory evaluation as outlined by Burke (1998, pp. 44-45), the evaluation methodology respects and uses the knowledge and experience of the key stakeholders, the evaluation favors collective methods of knowledge generation, the evaluator (facilitator) shares power with the stakeholders, and the participatory evaluator continuously and critically examines his or her own attitudes, ideas, and behavior.

As Cousins and Whitmore (1998) note, the term participatory evaluation covers two rather different types of evaluation: practical participatory evaluation, which aims to support program or organizational decision making and problem solving through the use of evaluation; and transformative participatory evaluation, which is concerned with emancipation and social justice and in reallocating power in the production of knowledge and promoting social change. In terms of this framework, horizontal evaluation falls within the first type, as it aims primarily to support decision making and problem solving within the Papa Andina network.