Most evaluation ToR and reports ask for/include Lessons Learned.
In my experience as a meta-evaluator, most of the review tools organizations use ask whether this element was present in the report and to assess the quality of them. And I must say: I am often confused about what to look for and expect.
Also as an evaluator, I try to add Lessons Learned to my reports but I face similar challenges wondering if they are solid enough.
That is why I had been meaning to deepen my understanding of them and to do this brief cheatsheet – to remind me some key ideas next time I elaborate or review some. Here it is:
This is a first approximation. Remaining questions would be how are they different from Good Practices, another commonly asked element in ToR (although I am aware that they are controversial), but most importantly how they are different from plain conclusions.
However, thank you to the colleagues who sent resources and helped me throw some light on it when I asked in EVALTALK (Joaquín de la Concha, Leah G. Moses and M.Q. Patton), and hoping to continue understanding this common evaluation output.
