Negotiating Fieldwork Politics in Development Evaluation: A Case Study of a Women’s Empowerment Project

Abstract

This paper is an experiential review of two major challenges faced by the author in carrying out fieldwork in development evaluation for a women’s project. The paper reviews two particular challenges that are common but often neglected in field work of this nature. The first challenge is being male and studying projects meant for female beneficiaries in an African culture. The second challenge comes from eliciting information from donor dependent communities who understand the value of information given to donors as far as their livelihoods are concerned. Despite the importance of the latter issue, this area of study has a dearth of information. The article is based on experience from development projects evaluation in Zimbabwe, but more specifically from a gender project evaluation exercise in Matabeleland North Province in Zimbabwe. Recommendations are made on how to safeguard the reliability of collected field data in the face of these challenges.