"Kya sir, 'log survey karne aate hain, karke chale jaate hain aur hame kuchh nahin milta', voh budda bol raha tha", the surveyor said. "usko ID card bhi nahin diya. Ab uska kya javaab de?"
Translation: "What sir, 'people come, conduct surveys and leave, while we get nothing out of it", the surveyor said. "That's what the old man was saying. He didn't even get an ID card. What can I tell him?"
He's just hit a nerve here, forcing me to try and explain what the respondents get from our survey. PIs seem to have good explanations for this sort of thing: policy relevance, extending an analogy, ensuring better delivery of services or a better allocation of resources.
It's hard for me as an RA to be able to step back and look at larger picture like that. Generally, my focus is limited to the study: the respondents, the survey and the surveyors. I have neither the knowledge of the current state of policy nor a guiding philosoph…

What is process evaluation? The purpose of Process Evaluation is to assess whether the implementation of the process in a project, is in accordance with the overall project objectives and project plan. PE analysis assesses the strength and structure of; (1) operational processes - service delivery, methodology used and resource usage; and (2) program component processes - service usage and participant experiences. PE therefore seeks to evaluate overall project achievements, and evaluate why and how changes occurred in the population being studied. Criteria such as feasibility, efficiency, effectiveness, relevance and sustainability are used to evaluate the processes. PE is usually conducted primarily using qualitative methods. Findings from a PE analysis can help program managers better understand and evaluate issues arising during implementation of a process - operational or programmatic. In addition, PE can provide measurable statistics about what the challenges experienced during p…