Once your work is in motion, it’s essential to assess your impact over time through evaluation. This work begins with your Theory of Change, and examining how your programming has shifted the needle in your community–and what steps brought those changes to life. 

Like all things at Emergence, we believe evaluation must be grounded first in community. So what does community-based evaluation look like? It means that: 

• Evaluation methods and data-collection tools are rooted in your community’s unique context, including its cultural norms, values, and forms of communication, and that any external evaluators are either community members themselves or deeply familiar with your community’s context and characteristics; and 

• Evaluation processes are framed to inform and support community members first, providing those you serve with key information about the issues affecting their lives–rather than simply to meet funder requirements. 

By focusing on developing funding relationships with partners who honor its deep commitment to community, Makoce has been able to create an evaluation strategy and framework that is primarily focused on bringing new data and stories to community stakeholders–while giving funders the evidence then need to sustain and grow their support for Makoce’s work. By keeping community impact at the heart of the work–and by using community-centered methods like oral storytelling–Makoce has been able to continuously share how its work is impacting the community’s ability to engage with and build a local food system.