The Structure of the Report

NZAID needs to store and retrieve physical and electronic copies of each NZAID evaluation and review from NZAID’s electronic and library system (see NZAID guidelines on dissemination and reporting for more information). In order to ensure the ability to search effectively through reviews and evaluations and draw out cross-organisational learning, it is important that certain information is included in all reports. As a minimum, each evaluation report should include the information identified in the following five sections.

1. Report title

It is important the title of a report is clear, meaningful and differentiates one report from another. Titles should state, in the following order:

whether the report is an evaluation or review
the name of the country or region
the name of the Activity, programme, policy, strategy, or theme.

For example, ‘Evaluation of the Vanuatu Governance and Institutional Strengthening Project’ or the ‘Review of Pacific Region Education Reform Programme’.

2. Title page

The report’s title page¹ should state, in the following order (see Appendix One for a template):

the report title and, if used, subtitle printed beneath the title.
the name of the commissioning organisation(s)
The Author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s) including designation
Date (month and year) and location (e.g. Wellington)
NZAID disclaimer (see below).

Independence of the evaluation or review team is important to NZAID. While the evaluation or review should meet the agreed evaluation standards, the evaluators or reviewers should enhance credability of the report through protecting their independence. A disclaimer on the report that the content does not necessarily reflect the views of NZAID will help to ensure that this is not compromised. As such, the title page should include the following statement:

“The views expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the New Zealand Agency for International Development, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Government or any other party. Nor do these entities accept any liability for claims arising from the report’s content or reliance on it”

A cover page template is appended (Appendix One) at the end of this guideline.

3. Executive summary

The Executive Summary should be clear, concise (no more than six pages), written for a broad audience and be able to be distributed separately. It should include:

a brief description of the intervention being evaluated or reviewed
a brief background of why the evaluation or review was carried out, including the purpose and objectives of the review or evaluation
a succinct description of the approach and methodology used, who was involved, how? This section ought to describe how project/programme stakeholders participated in the evaluation or review
a brief description of the key findings and conclusions for each objective of the evaluation or review
recommendations, lessons learned and suggested follow up action.

4. Main body of the report

The main text of the report will vary according to the specific study. However, it is important that this section contains:

a description of the intervention and its development and political context
a description of the background and purpose of the evaluation or review and the main users of the findings/report
a detailed description of the approach, methodology and processes used
limitations of the evaluation or review²
findings and conclusions
recommendations, lessons learned and suggested follow up action.

5. Appendices

These should include:

glossary of acronyms used
terms of reference for the evaluation or review
evaluation plan
list of data sources.

¹ If a cover page is used, the title on the cover should exactly match the title on the title page. A subtitle, if used, should be printed beneath the title. ^back

² While limitations are part of the methodology, they are particularly important and should be highlighted in a separate section.

Main sections

The Structure of the Report