The concept of programme evaluation, now more than half a century old, refers to the practice of professional assessment of a programme that is informed by evidence and guided by evaluative thinking to arrive at a judgement about value, merit, worth, significance and utility. Good programme evaluations in general adopt an inclusive development approach rather than a transformative approach. Feminist evaluations, by contrast, identify a wide range of stakeholders and engage the larger community in order to identify, and encourage the programme to challenge social norms that perpetuate inequalities between men and women and other genders. 

The essays in this volume, in different ways, suggest that gender transformative change cannot happen through the actions or exercise of agency by one group alone – whether it is girls, or boys, or women. Instead the authors draw out the importance of ‘connectedness’ between groups of people and between individual agents and the larger structures within which they are located. In doing so, they apply a feminist lens to a range of programme evaluations and policies at both the national level and at the level of specific states (Uttarakhand, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu).

“This rich volume deepens understanding on the theory and practice of feminist evaluation.  It offers insights on whether programmes and policies can address gender inequities, especially when they are designed, implemented, and evaluated in systems that are deeply inequitable.  The authors grapple with, and push against,  the limitations of traditional evaluation frameworks.  They explore institutional factors and barriers which shape and impede individual agency, choice, aspirations, and behaviours, and offer new approaches, insights, tools, and frameworks for other evaluation theorists and practitioners…Spanning feminist and Dalit theory, evaluation theory, gender programming, and covering a range of different sectoral programme cases while also moving between the conceptual and practical, this rich volume offers both new insights and practical tools for deepening feminist evaluation practice.” — Katherine Hay, Deputy Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

RAJIB NANDI is Associate Director at the Institute of Social Studies Trust, New Delhi with 22 years of experience in gender transformative research and evaluation. He has an M.Phil degree in applied Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, a doctoral degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and a post-graduate certificate in Development Evaluation (IPDET) from the University of Bern. Rajib’s areas of work cover gender and development, social and solidarity economy, information and communications technologies, programme evaluations, and evaluative studies. He is a founder and core group member of the Evaluation Community of India. Presently he is the Governing Board Member of the Community of Evaluators–South Asia and a Council Member with the International Evaluation Academy (IEAc). 

RATNA M. SUDARSHAN is a Trustee and former Director of the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST). She has been on the research staff at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and a National Fellow at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. Her research has mainly focused on the linkages between women’s work, the informal economy and education.

Over the last several years, regular evaluation of development programs has become essential in measuring and understanding their true impact. Feminist and gender-sensitive evaluations have gradually emerged, drawing attention to existing inequities—gender, caste, class, location, and more—and the cumulative effect of these biases on daily life. Such evaluations are also deeply political; they explicitly acknowledge that gender-based inequalities exist, show how they remain embedded in society, and articulate ways to address them.

Based on four years of research, Voices and Values offers critical insight into how gender, class, and nationality inflect and affect sociological research. It examines how feminist evaluations could make an effective contribution to new policy formulations oriented to gender and social equity. The essays here focus centrally on the structural roots of inequity: giving weight to all perspectives; adding value to marginalized groups and people under evaluation; and taking forward the findings of evaluation into advocacy for change. In doing so, each essay advances the understanding of feminist evaluation both conceptually and as practice.

CONTRIBUTORS: Venu Arora | Sneha Bhat | Pallavi Gupta | Vasundhara Kaul | Renu Khanna | Seema Kulkarni | Ranjani K. Murthy | Rajib Nandi | Srinidhi Raghavan | Neha Sanwal | Shubh Sharma | Ratna M. Sudarshan | Enakshi Ganguly Thukral | Sonal Zaveri