Building Evaluation Capacity to Improve Extremism Prevention

There is a growing consensus that activities which aim to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/​CVE) should build on evidence and lessons gleaned from past experiences. The key to this vision of a learning-focused approach are high-quality evaluations: if conducted correctly and on a regular basis, such systematic assessments can help those involved in extremism prevention understand what does and does not work – and enable them to design their programs accordingly.

However, a lack of evaluation experience and expertise among stakeholders in the P/​CVE field is hampering efforts to build a more solid foundation of evidence on extremism prevention. While targeted evaluation support is increasingly accessible to practitioners across P/​CVE contexts, particularly in the form of toolkits, there is little knowledge about what makes such capacity-building instruments effective and how those who create them can maximize their uptake and use. 

Building on insights of a previous study on the state of P/​CVE evaluation efforts in 14 countries, this study specifically examines experiences with evaluation toolkits as learning resources for extremism prevention. Based on our analysis of available P/​CVE evaluation toolkits as well as interviews with toolkit developers and funders, we present best practices and recommendations for those who want to develop and implement effective toolkits to promote a more informed evaluation practice in extremism prevention. Our recommendations relate to all major aspects of the ​‘toolkit life cycle’, including: relevance and user-centric design; accessibility and language; user testing and feedback; effective outreach and communication; as well as assessments of toolkit use and impact. 

We address the following recommendations to anyone seeking to build evaluation capacity in the P/​CVE field and beyond.

As a tool developer, you should:

• Involve target audiences from the start of development to ensure toolkit designs align with their learning and language needs;
• Test draft designs with end users before a toolkit’s final implementation, allowing sufficient time and resources to incorporate feedback;
• Create engaging communication strategies to disseminate your toolkit to its intended audience;
• Integrate a plan to monitor dissemination and allocate resources for ongoing outreach and updates to keep toolkit content relevant.

As a funder of evaluation support instruments for P/​CVE, you should:

• Assess capacity needs to identify the most suitable capacity-building tools and determine if existing resources can be adapted before creating new ones;
• Embed toolkits into an evaluation capacity support system, which combines various tools and addresses structural barriers like (dis-)incentives for evaluation;
• Ensure that the use of capacity-building instruments can be monitored and evaluated to contribute to an evidence base on how to successfully build evaluation capacity. 

For more details on how to develop impactful and user-friendly evaluation toolkits, download the full study.

This research was funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior as part of the project​“Evaluation and Quality Management in Extremism Prevention, Democracy Promotion and Civic Education: Analysis, Monitoring, Dialogue (PrEval).”

More information on PrEval can be found here and on the project’s website.