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Participatory evaluation of urban poor NGOs in Thailand

University of British Columbia

The global trends of rapid urbanization and increasing disparity between rich and poor have been particularly extreme in the case of Thailand. The benefits of Thailand’s spectacular economic growth have been unequally distributed. For many of the over one million slum dwellers of Bangkok this boom period has resulted in mass eviction. Recent evidence suggests that slum communities in regional cities are also facing a trend of increased eviction. This case study analyzes the work of the Human Settlement Foundation, a Thai nongovernmental organization (NGO) which supports the formation and development of community—based organizations as a means for enabling and empowering Thailand’s urban poor to solve their shelter problems. The study focuses on the role of program evaluation in strengthening NGO capacities. It analyzes the purposes, methods, levels of participation, strengths, and weaknesses of external and internal evaluation processes as they are applied to NGOs. The thesis links field evidence with recent literature about participatory program evaluation to identify opportunities and constraints which might arise with the introduction of more collaborative evaluation processes. Basic data sources include semi—structured interviews; participant observation; primary documents such as project proposals, progress reports, memoranda, and brochures; and secondary documents such as studies, reports, and newspaper articles. The study finds that both external and internal evaluation have limited potential for strengthening NGO capacities. It develops a hypothesis about how more broadly participatory collaborative evaluation would affect the following five NGO capacity variables: relations with funding agencies, management abilities, accountability to clients, relations with other NGOs, and relations with government.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-25

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5026

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University of British Columbia

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