1.1. Introduction to Evaluation
The very early definition of evaluation is by Cronbach's (1980) who defined evaluation as the process through which a society learns about itself, through many variations. Shadish (1998) identified five components of evaluation theory namely; social programming, knowledge, value, use, and practice. Evaluation involves systematic determination of the merit, significance and worth by means of a criterion guided by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative to assess any aim, realizable concept/proposal, or any alternative, to help in decision-making; or to ascertain the degree of achievement or value in regard to the aim and objectives and results of any such action that has been completed (Alkin, & King, 2016; Belford., Robertson, & Jepson, 2017).
Evaluation is a systematic process that is objective and involves analysis and assessment of the organization’s policies, programs, partnerships and procedures with respect to a given project or program. According to Shadish, & Luellen (2011) evaluation provides the means to reflect and focus on the project or program performance and progress and involves assessment of policies and activities with the objective of improving learning and performance. The objective of most evaluations is to gather evidence and analyze findings with the purpose of assessing the impact and effectiveness of various program/project activities. This will then facilitate enforcement of corrective to improve performance and prevent failure of projects and programs (United Nations Commissioner for Refugees) UNHCR, 2005). According to Conley-Tylor (2005), evaluation is a tool or means used to improve performance in business, community sector and government operations. On their part, Taylor, Purdue, Wilson and Wilde (2005) remarked that evaluation will help project or organization members or personnel learn from their activities, assess effectiveness of effort and establish whether there is progress towards success or failure, and celebrate and build on success. Therefore, project evaluation is a failure prevention mechanism employed during execution phase of the project.