Building Evaluation Capacity to Improve Extremism Prevention

Demand for activities that prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE) to build on evidence and lessons learned is growing. So is the need for evaluation to determine which preventive measures work and under which circumstances. A key challenge for frequent, high-quality evaluation is a lack of evaluation experience and expertise among stakeholders in the field.

To close the evaluation knowledge and skills gap, different actors have developed support instruments to help build evaluation capacity. While evaluation support for P/CVE is increasingly accessible across contexts, particularly through toolkits, research is lacking on what makes such capacity-building instruments effective and how to ensure appropriate design. In this study, we examine experiences with designing evaluation toolkits as learning resources.

Based on our analysis of available P/CVE evaluation toolkits and interviews with developers and funders, we present best practices and recommendations for designing and implementing effective toolkits and support structures for evaluation in extremism prevention. Our recommendations relate to 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.

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