Performance Measurement and Project Evaluation for African Rural Information Services

Abstract

Rural information services on a less formal plan than conventional library service have been advocated in Africa since the early 1980s. Since then considerable experimentation with such services has taken place in many countries, for example Tanzania and Zimbabwe. So far, little formal assessment of such services has been attempted. Performance measurement, derived from marketing concepts, and project evaluation, with an emphasis on community participation, both offer lessons for such assessment. Significant practical literature from each of these approaches is briefly reviewed. Three examples of evaluations, from Tanzania, Botswana and Malawi, are then examined in the light of what the literature suggests. It is concluded that a blending of ideas and techniques from both approaches should be used in future evaluations.