MAJOR FACTORS INFLUENCING HIV/AIDS PROJECT EVALUATION

This article aimed at finding out if participatory processes (group discussions, enactments, and others) do make a valuable contribution in communication-based project implementation/ evaluation and the fight against HIV/AIDS. A case study backed by documentary analysis of eval-uation reports and occasional insights from interviews stood as the main methods. To identify values, the state of beneficiaries prior to and after project implementation/evaluation was com-pared. Participatory processes were noted to have created an enabling environment for project beneficiaries to become activists for social change, leading to the limiting of the spread of HIV/ AIDS through sexual behavior and a change of attitude—the essence required for successful intervention. Group participatory processes were also noted to have contributed in overriding, to a great extent, limitations arising from sociodemographic differences in the attainment of pro-ject objectives and limitations arising from differences in forms of evaluation (internal versus external evaluators)