It is important to involve all categories of stakeholders at different stages of an evaluation whereby making them a vital part of evaluation process and facilitating the acceptance of the findings. In the first place a list of stakeholders should be prepared including program coordinator, service providers, managers, planners to make sure no party is left out. The involvement of stakeholders in developing a framework for evaluation, tools of measurement, selection of evaluation indicators, developing procedures is crucial.
In order to make evaluation significant it is important to understand the perspectives of different evaluators and a common meaning an comprehension of the word’ evaluation’ be arrived at. There is a great possibility that the evaluators opinion may conflict with each other which needs to be resolved at the very first stage before it becomes a task to handle it. It should be kept in mind that no evaluator should feel that any other has been favoured. Every evaluator has a different perspective and objectives that he/she is looking for in a researcher.
Therefore, it is also imperative that before the process of evaluation starts what the evaluator has in his mind in terms of needs, aims should be studies and carefully handled. For the matter of routine consultation, day to day decision making, sharing of ideas, it is critical to ask the shareholders for a steering committee with whom there could be healthy consultation and guidance. This committee gives stakeholders a sense of continuous involvement in the process of evaluation.