Scott G. Chaplowe and J. Bradley Cousins. (2016).
Monitoring and Evaluation Training: A Systematic Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Hardcover, 439 pages. (ISBN 978-1-4522-8891-8)
Reviewed by Michele Tarsilla , UNICEF, West and Central Africa, Regional Offi ce, Dakar, Senegal

Despite efforts for greater patient engagement in health care quality improvement, evaluation practice in this context remains mostly conventional and noncollaborative. Following an explication of this problem we discuss relevant theory and research on patient-centred care (PCC) and patient engagement and then consider potential benefits of collaborative and participatory approaches to evaluation of such initiatives.

How do evaluators using collaborative approaches to evaluation (CAE) define success? This is the core question being asked in a further analysis of data from our previous work (Cousins, Whitmore, & Shulha, 2013 ; Shulha et al., 2016) that developed a set of evidence-based principles to guide collaborative evaluation practice. Probing data from 320 responses to our (2012) survey, we examined what respondents considered "highly successful" and "less successful than hoped" in their collaborative evaluation projects.

Through a guided discussion, this article explores a five-year cross-cultural evaluation relationship comprising multiple projects involving an evaluator from Canada and a group of Indian colleagues working on educational reform in India. The initiative was funded through a multilateral consortium of donors and involved Western evaluation specialists working in collaboration with Indian colleagues to (a) develop evaluation capacity within the country and (b) produce evaluative knowledge about education quality initiatives associated with large-scale educational reform.

The special issue is devoted to the examination of organizational capacity for evaluation and evaluation capacity building (ECB) through empirical inquiry. The compilation consists of two quantitative surveys of evaluators and seven single or multiple case studies across a broad array of organizations in a diverse contexts (e.g., east-central Ontario, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Israel). In this final article, the authors look across the collection of studies to identify emerging themes and trends with implications for ECB.

According to the literature published on the topic, the development of an organization's capacity to do and use evaluation typically follows four stages: traditional evaluation, characterized by externally mandated evaluation activities; awareness and experimentation, during which organizational members learn about evaluation and its benefits by participating in a number of evaluation-related activities; evaluation implementation, the stage at which the role of evaluation is more clearly defined in the organization; and evaluation adoption, which occurs when evaluative inquiry becomes

Despite increasing interest in the integration of evaluative inquiry into organizational functions and culture, the availability of empirical research addressing organizational capacity building to do and use evaluation is limited. This exploratory descriptive survey of internal evaluators in Canada asked about evaluation capacity building in the context of organizational characteristics (learning, support structures), evaluative activity and use, and variables that mediate use. We received a total of 340 usable responses to an online survey.