Hear from evaluation practitioners throughout Latin America. In this region program evaluation is an emergent practice, one that is shaped by distinctive geopolitical and social contexts and has its own intellectual biography. Through a selection of writings and cases this issue provides a window on program evaluation in this region. The articles indicate a range of experiences and concerns that respond to the countries unique histories and cultures. Articles by evaluators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru illustrate new directions and are grouped around the following themes: Strategic use of evaluation in public policies and active citizenship Innovative project evaluation examples Evaluation capacity building and institutionalization. The widespread development of participatory or actor-oriented approaches, based on qualitative methodologies that have a particularly Latin American stamp, are emphasized in this issue. This is the 134th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

Hear from evaluation practitioners throughout Latin America. Inthis region program evaluation is an emergent practice, one that isshaped by distinctive geopolitical and social contexts and has itsown intellectual biography.Through a selection of writings and cases this issue provides awindow on program evaluation in this region. The articles indicatea range of experiences and concerns that respond to thecountries' unique histories and cultures. Articles byevaluators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, andPeru illustrate new directions and are grouped around the followingthemes:* Strategic use of evaluation in public policies and activecitizenship* Innovative project evaluation examples* Evaluation capacity building and institutionalization.The widespread development of participatory or actor-orientedapproaches, based on qualitative methodologies that have aparticularly Latin American stamp, are emphasized in thisissue.This is the 134th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly reportseries New Directions for Evaluation, an officialpublication of the American Evaluation Association.

EDITORS' NOTES 1Saville Kushner, Emma Rotondo1. Evaluation in Latin America: Paradigms and Practices7Nerio NeirottiThis chapter looks at the emergence and development of programevaluation through successive waves of political and economicreform across Latin America, including the imposition andwithdrawal of the Washington Consensus.2. Emergent Evaluation and Educational Reforms in LatinAmerica 17Sergio MartinicThis chapter has a particular focus on educational evaluation. Theauthor shows how the discipline and methodology of evaluation haschanged in response to waves of school reform in the region.3. Evaluation, Public Policies, and Human Rights 29Ludwig GuendelContinuing the theme of evaluation in Latin America responding tosociopolitical contexts, this chapter focuses on how evaluationreflects international policy for human rights. The author looks athow the rights agenda is written into policy and the essentialacknowledgment of subjectivities.4. Moving Toward a Gender Equality and Human RightsPerspective in Evaluation 39Alejandra Faúndez MeléndezGender and equity issues are not uncommon themes in evaluationdiscourse, but in this chapter we hear about how they are playedout in the context of Latin America. The place of the woman indevelopment and the particular cases of indigenous peoples providesome of the context.5. Youth Participation in Evaluation: The Pró-MeninoProgram in Brazil 49Daniel Braga Brandão, Rogério Renato Silva, RenataCodasFocusing at the level of method, this chapter looks at a case of aparticipatory evaluation with adolescents, and the use ofcomic-book-type storyboarding as an evaluative tool.6. Evaluating With At-Risk Communities: Learning From aSocial Program in a Brazilian Slum 61Ana Carolina Letichevsky, Thereza Penna FirmeIn this chapter, the authors give an account of an evaluationconducted as "appreciative enquiry" in collaboration with acommunity in a poor area. "Appreciation" was a methodologicalresponse to previously failed attempts to secure the trust of thiscommunity.7. Performance Measurement and Evaluation Systems:Institutionalizing Accountability for Governmental Results in LatinAmerica 77Nuria Cunill-Grau, Sonia M. OspinaReturning to the opening themes of how evaluation responds topolitical and economic change, this chapter looks at the dominantinternational methodology of results-based management and raisesissue for the practice of evaluation in Latin America.8. Lessons Learned From Evaluation Capacity Building93Emma RotondoStruggling to meet contemporary innovation and reform demandscapacity development for evaluation is a prominent dimension ofexperience in the region. This chapter documents the work ofPREVAL, a UN-funded evaluation network dedicated to capacitydevelopment in qualitative approaches to program evaluation.9. Evaluation as a Learning Tool 103Osvaldo Néstor FeinsteinThis chapter discusses the commonly-expressed dualism betweenevaluation for learning and evaluation for accountability. In aLatin American context, the author argues that the two can andshould be seen as complementary.INDEX 113