1 Are you building in evaluation from the outset by being clear about the purpose of a particular international development activity, its intended outputs and how these will be verified?

2 Are you involving key project partners and relevant community partners at home in the evaluation design?

3 Have you looked at and learnt from how other similar initiatives have been evaluated while also ensuring that your method of evaluation fits with the particular project circumstances?

4 Will the evaluation be in a form that will give your project stakeholders – councillors, funders, partners - what they need?

5 Is the method and extent of evaluation proportionate to the nature of the activity and the council involvement? Some community-based activities may entail little council resources, in which case you need to be clear whether evaluation is needed and how it can add value.

+ Involve partners. Where international development activities involve overseas partners or community partners or other stakeholders in the UK, they need to be part of the process of setting and reviewing objectives.

+ Identify key stages. Look at the different phases of the project and identify at what points evaluation will be useful.

+ Make sure you use the results. Don’t leave evaluation documents hidden on a hard drive. Use them with your partners to inform future work and to provide feedback to council members, project funders and other stakeholders on project impact.

+ Don’t overcomplicate things. It needn’t always be in-depth evaluation – sometimes it can be very simple and straightforward.

+ Don’t confine evaluation to a ‘before and after’ activity. It is important that it is timely with objectives being appropriately revised and updated during the course of a project in the light of actual learning and experience.