By Benedikt Büchsenschütz (Violence Prevention Network)

In recent years, numerous initiatives in P/CVE, civic education, and democracy promotion have sought to expand Monitoring and Evaluation tools in order to strengthen their evidence-based decision-making and become more resilient, learning organisations. Along with this effort, multiple knowledge networks have tried to collect best practices in the field of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and make them more accessible to practitioners. However, a fundamental challenge remains: the exchange of findings is still highly limited, particularly in projects reliant on short-term funding. Evaluation processes and results are often treated as a black box, obstructing knowledge-sharing and the collective development of valuable insights. Evaluation results often remain unused because they are rarely made public. The fear that adjustments during an ongoing project might be perceived as „failures“ leads to valuable learning opportunities being hidden, rendering them inaccessible to similar initiatives. This lack of transparency undermines the potential for long-term improvement across the field.

Fostering an open and trust-based exchange of evaluation results is crucial not only for improving project quality but also for providing evidence-based arguments to donors, demonstrating project effectiveness and securing sustained support. To ensure the long-term viability of demand-driven evaluation formats, decision-makers and funding bodies must actively endorse these efforts rather than treating them as a mere administrative requirement or external audit – another box to tick in a challenging landscape for actors in the field.

To enhance the exchange of evaluation results, the right framework conditions must be established. Through numerous panels, surveys, and informal formats, key factors for successfully sharing best practices in Germany have been identified in the scope of the research initiative PrEval –  Evaluation and Quality Management in Extremism Prevention, Democracy Promotion and Civic Education: Analysis, Monitoring, Dialogue, in which Violence Prevention Network has a leading role:

Accessibility and Visibility: Monitoring and Evaluation tools must be easy to find and widely promoted. Additionally, formats should be tailored to the practical needs of professionals, ensuring direct applicability to their daily work.

Trust and Relevance: Participants need confidence that any internal project data they share will be securely handled by experts with relevant and domain-specific knowledge. Without trust, meaningful knowledge exchange is unlikely to occur.

Independence of Expertise: To maintain credibility and effectiveness, evaluation expertise must remain independent of funding institutions. In the long term, systematic capacity-building within the field is essential to reinforce sustainable knowledge transfer.

Planning Reliability: Networks focused on evaluation and knowledge exchange require long-term resources to address critical cross-cutting issues consistently. Practitioners must have sufficient time and flexibility to engage meaningfully with evaluation formats and integrate findings into their work.

Sustainable Structures: Evaluation initiatives should be firmly embedded within existing networks to ensure accessibility across different regions and professional communities. This integration is vital for establishing long-term impact and fostering a sustainable culture of knowledge-sharing and evaluation.

In times of increasing challenges, fostering transparency and collaboration in evaluation can strengthen connections across the field, creating a more resilient and adaptive community that is better equipped to navigate uncertainties and drive meaningful change. Embracing transparency in evaluation is essential for fostering this process, improving project quality, and securing sustainable impact. By prioritising openness, knowledge exchange, and integration into existing networks, we can ensure that evaluation becomes a valuable tool for long-term progress rather than administrative burdens.

Capacity building and forums for exchange on best practices in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

In the scope of the German research project PrEval, Violence Prevention Network joined forces with their partners to map out existing hubs of expertise that already provide or could provide space for exchange on the topics of evaluation and quality management in the fields of democracy promotion, extremism prevention, and civic education. It developed overarching recommendations and specific and detailed proposals for support services that build capacity among practitioners and are adapted to the specific challenges of monitoring, evaluation, and learning in democracy promotion, civic education, and P/CVE. These proposals can be integrated into established knowledge networks. They were designed in a participatory fashion to be as low-threshold as possible, with the iterative nature of the process aimed at aligning the formats as closely as possible to the needs of the target group of practitioners.

The “Zukunftswerkstatt” or “Future Lab” aimed to capture the diversity and potential of existing networks that are either active in civic education, democracy promotion, or the prevention of extremism, while offering structures and services related to evaluation and quality management or that primarily focus on evaluation and quality management but provide relevant resources for these fields. In addition, the project identified specific needs, developed tailored format proposals, and analysed the conditions required for their successful implementation.

Piloting Short-term Consultation formats and Long-term Consultation and Support Series is part of the Zukunftswerkstatt. These offers target organisations working with administrations and funding bodies, assisting them in developing and implementing evaluation and quality management processes. Based on needs assessments, the consultation services offer tailored formats that address specific requirements, such as the practical development of impact models, creation of indicators, and support for data analysis. A key feature is the ongoing exchange between practitioners, administration, and academia, ensuring the development of practical, sustainable solutions. To further support implementation, accompanying materials and practice-oriented guidelines are made available for free on the PrEval website, helping participants integrate the concepts into their long-term projects.

Another capacity building format that has proven to be cost-effective and inspires change is the Methods Workshop, where one organisation presents a data gathering tool they have actually implemented in their practice and help participants develop their own version of such a tool to fit a similar activity they implement. The Workshops on experiences in conducting external evaluation are also a peer exchange format, in which one organisation presents the results of an already conducted external evaluation and expands on the strategic decisions they then proceeded to implement based on the findings. This format has been very beneficial in promoting research results and demonstrating how they can be used to strengthen practice efforts.

It is recommended that policy makers and funding bodies actively support the sustainable implementation of demand-driven support services by ensuring their long-term funding. Central to these efforts should be knowledge transfer and professional exchange on evaluation and quality management within existing and newly established civil-society-led Monitoring and Evaluation Support Hubs. The implementers of such Support Hub should adopt and adapt the formats presented to meet the specific needs of their target groups, while practitioners should actively engage with these formats to strengthen and democratise expertise in the field.

Success in advancing evaluation practices in the field hinges on several key factors. First, trust is essential: it enables open, honest dialogue between practitioners, institutions, and experts, and supports long-term engagement. Second, flexibility and adaptability in both methods and formats are crucial for meeting the diverse and changing needs of the field. Third, collaboration among all relevant stakeholders, including professional networks, academia, donors, and practitioners, ensures a shared commitment to sustainable and practical implementation. Finally, access to relevant knowledge and peer exchange, particularly when embedded in established networks, fosters visibility, credibility, and continuous learning. Together, these factors contribute to a dynamic, responsive, and impactful evaluation culture that moves the field forward on the long run.

Benedikt Büchsenschütz is a Research Fellow at Violence Prevention Network, with a focus on gender in extremism, (online) radicalisation, and hybrid ideologies. He holds a Master’s degree in Crisis and Security Management: Governance of Radicalism, Extremism and Terrorism (MSc) from Leiden University.