Desk review
A desk review or documentary review is an essential part of any major M&E activity. In a major programme evaluation, a desk review phase may even take place as a preliminary discrete exercise and will feed into designing the evaluation ToR.
Even in a rapid assessment in a humanitarian crisis, a comparable exercise of reviewing existing information will take place, though it will often rely as heavily on key informants as documents.
Use and importance
A desk review is a useful way to:
§ help design a study or evaluation by identifying key issues and questions;
§ learn about the context of the programme to be evaluated;
§ learn about the original programme design — its history, philosophy, rationale, goals, objectives, strategies — and how it evolved;
§ answer some evaluation questions;
§ cross-check other data or provide a standard of comparison; and
§ provide a baseline for longitudinal and before/after comparisons.
It is also critical for:
§ avoiding duplication of previous studies and
§ focusing new data collection on issues of concern or areas requiring verification.
Limitations
Written documents do not necessarily provide comprehensive or correct answers to specific problems, as they may contain errors, omissions, or exaggerations. They are simply one form of evidence, and should be used carefully and with other types of data.
Sources of information
Relevant existing documentation that can be consulted during a desktop review include:
Internal documentation from the organisations involved
§ relevant policy documents, mission statements, and organisational strategy papers
§ relevant research and discussion papers, including evaluations of similar programmes
§ organisational charts
§ planning documents, such as project proposals and funding proposals
§ project reports, including donor reports, field trip notes, activity schedules, diaries, participant utilisation records as well as other relevant programme reports
§ relevant correspondence and meeting minutes
§ previous reviews or evaluation reports on the programme to be examined, including annual and midterm reports, and surveys and special studies.
Monitoring systems
Monitoring information can show how well a project is managed by providing information on:
§ process indicators (e.g. number of people trained, mothers seen, children treated).
§ impact indicators (e.g. from records, surveys, or reviews), which can be used to assess changes over time.
External documentation
§ Relevant statistics and background information
§ Reports from other agencies involved in the work
§ Relevant government policy and planning documents
§ External studies or surveys that are relevant (for example, carrying out a literature search on the topic)
Basic questions for managing desk review
Questions For Design Of Desk Review
What information is needed?
Where can it be found?
What computer databases can be used to search for relevant literature/data?
Who could be aware (key individual, key departments and agencies) of relevant documentation and information?
What information is available from monitoring systems and previous reviews or evaluations?
How will that information be analysed? What analytical framework will be used?
What skills, experience, or technical support will be required to obtain and analyse the information?
What sort of awareness, skills and languages will be needed to gather information? Consider what analytical frameworks and tools should be used (specifically developed for the evaluation or more generic tools such as logical frameworks).
Questions For The Reviewer And Critique Of Results
What are the limitations of the existing information?
Check:
§ Focus
§ Sources
§ Authors (reliability/interests, agenda)
§ Underlying assumptions
§ Coverage
§ Methodology employed,
§ Timeliness
§ Etc.
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