Towards building a network - External Evaluation of TRIALOG IV

In April 2012, the external evaluation of the current (fourth) phase of TRIALOG was completed. The evaluator Nikki van der Gaag gathered and analysed numerous data from interviews with stakeholders, an online questionnaire, her attendance at international meetings and a national training event as well as from a wide range of project reports and documents.

In her evaluation report, Nikki van der Gaag states: “TRIALOG has achieved a huge amount in the last 12 years. […]NMS Platforms and their members have become actors on development in the EU and amassed a considerable amount of expertise through training, capacity building, conferences, meetings, study visits and exchanges. […]Many respondents gave due credit to the work of TRIALOG, which they felt had helped to build a body of people in the EU12 who are interested in, and committed to, development.”

The evaluation has shown that especially networking events such as the Partnership Fairs are highly praised and needed and therefore recommends that TRIALOG continues bringing people together and providing such spaces for exchange. The evaluator believes that TRIALOG has now reached a watershed and needs to move from a service organisation to support, and being part of an active and interactive network. In the future TRIALOG should support and build up peer-to-peer learning between EU12 platforms, as well as between people from EU12, EU15 and the Global South; focus on activities such as strategy meetings for EU12 platforms, study visits, training for key actors and support to accession countries.

Nikki van der Gaag concludes: “During the coming years TRIALOG has the opportunity to be part of building a participative network of development NGOs.” The TRIALOG team is excited about starting down this new, challenging path with all EU12 and Accession/Candidate Countries in the near future.

For Development NGO platforms, their members and cooperation partners, the external evaluation report is available upon request from information@trialog.or.at

In the photo: Evaluation networking exercise at TRIALOG Partner Meeting

Information provided by Elisa Romero, TRIALOG