Sharing Evaluation Findings with Community Stakeholders

Research
Published in: Annual World Bank Land and Poverty Conference

Sharing research results with communities facilitates important community access to data they made possible has the potential to strengthen the rigor, relevance, and reach of such research. USAID is currently supporting efforts to disseminate rigorous evaluation findings back to local project stakeholders, such as survey respondents, project beneficiaries, community leaders, and local government officials. These information dissemination efforts provide stakeholders with a summary of development outcomes and trends in their area and raise awareness of project achievements. This paper presents a case study of one such community based participatory research activity that involves sharing data with respondents participating in a rigorous quasi-experimental evaluation of a community land protection program in Liberia, exploring methodological considerations for ongoing research – such minimizing the potential for bias and threats to the validity of evaluation findings – as well as design challenges that arise translating technical findings for an audience with limited formal education.

Key Words: Customary land tenure, Data dissemination, Community based participatory research