Fit for measure? Evaluation in community development

Community development is a process where people concerned with social and environmental justice act together as engaged and active citizens1 to change their collective circumstances. A concern to deliver change through these processes raises the questions: How do we know if our work is effective? What do we mean by and how do we assess outcomes? What ‘evidence’ will help us articulate and improve how we do our work? Over the past decades, there has been a growing trend globally towards evaluation to understand and improve practice. Nevertheless, there is a lack of clarity about, and application of, appropriate frameworks for community development evaluation (Motherway, 2006; CDF, 2010; Whelan et al., 2019). Drawing on current practice, this paper explores challenges, principles and methods for evaluation in community development. We argue that ‘measurement’ requires a clear understanding and agreement of community development purpose and processes, including recognition of community as within and beyond place. Drawing on international evaluation criteria and models, we conclude that community development work could learn from these, as long as communities are in central decision-making roles. We offer suggestions for principles to inform evaluation efforts in community development, suggesting that good community development processes and associated outcomes represent in themselves a theory of change