Why did the chicken cross the road? And other stories on development evaluation...

This week, we finalized the proofs for this book which contains 11 short articles on development evaluation. I think it's a really nice book and the title's really fun too. I'm looking forward, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, to its appearance in two weeks time. The cover is very nice too - I've tried to post a copy of the front cover here but without any luck! The book is being published by KIT Publishers and it is a co-publication with IOB, Euforic and KIT.

The title comes from one of the chapters, written by Rob van den Berg, which compares collaboration in evaluation with the joke 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' He argues:

The debate on collaboration within evaluation is reminiscent of the question: ‘why did the chicken cross the road?’ The simple answer is that it wanted to get to the other side. But the evaluator wants to know:

whether the chicken took the shortest path across the road, and whether it crossed the road in the quickest possible way;

whether it can be established whether the chicken in actual fact reached the other side, and remains there, and is expected to remain there in the future; and

whether the needs of the chicken have been met by crossing the road.

To answer these questions, the evaluator will enter into a participatory process with the chicken, establish an intervention logic, logframe or theory of ‘how chickens cross roads’ and ‘intended short-term and long-term results of the chicken crossing the road’ which will lead to the gathering and analysis of relevant data. A full discussion of chickens and roads, and all the ramifications and possible benefits of future cooperation, is needed.