Beyond the final report: What does it take to communicate evaluation well?

I would push the bar even higher. Should we really be talking about communicating findings—or about co-generating them? In most evaluations, the richest learning happens not through reports or presentations, but in the moments spent with primary stakeholders: debating, reflecting, and exchanging perspectives.

It’s less about designing perfect communication plans and more about being alert and opportunistic—recognizing when a conversation, observation, or joint reflection becomes a genuine learning space worth seizing. Those moments are where understanding deepens and ownership grows.

We often assume that communication happens through formal products, but the people who can truly drive change are usually not the ones reading reports. They are the ones living the realities we’re trying to understand. That’s where communication—and learning—need to start and stay.

Thanks Silvio for raising this important issue.

For me, communicating effectively means accepting that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The traditional evaluation report still has its place, especially for accountability and documentation purposes—it’s necessary and should remain part of the package. But to really reach different audiences, we need to go beyond that. Short, tailored products like one-pagers, infographics, slide decks, or even social media content can make a big difference. Depending on the audience, this might mean a Twitter thread, an Instagram carousel, or even a short TikTok reel summarizing key messages.

AI tools have also made this much easier. Platforms like Notebook LLM now allow you to create podcasts or other multimedia products from scratch, often at no cost. UN Women’s Evaluation Unpacked series is a great example of how evaluation findings can be turned into engaging, accessible content. I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in these newer formats to make evaluation results more relatable and widely shared.

One of the biggest challenges is that communication and dissemination often aren’t built into the evaluation process from the start. They’re usually treated as an afterthought—something to do at the end if there’s time or budget left. As a result, dissemination either happens in a very limited way or doesn’t happen at all.

Ideally, communication should be part of the planning and resourced properly, just like data collection or analysis. It should also be seen as something that continues beyond the final report—helping keep the findings alive and relevant. I think clients and institutions could give more importance to this, treating communication as a core part of learning and follow-up, not just the “last step” of an evaluation.

Good point. I fully agree that communication needs to integrated early on in the evaluation process to enhance learning, engagement and (thus) use. We have a chapter on communication in our guide 'Managing for sustainable development impact. An integrated approach to planning, monitoring and evaluation'. We see communication as the ' glue that binds it all together'. You can read about the role of communication in this adaptive management approach; how we can understand communication ( including conceptual models of communication); how to overcome obstacles to communication and communicating effectively; and developing a communication strategy. I could imagine some of this may be useful evaluation as well. You can download the book for free: https://managingforimpact.org/ Hope this helps. 

Beyond the Final Report: Communicating Evaluation Well

Effective communication, in my experience as an evaluator, is essential to making sure that results are comprehended, appreciated, and used. It goes much beyond simply creating a final report. Any review should take communication into account from the beginning, not simply at the conclusion. Identifying audiences, comprehending their priorities, and choosing forms and channels that will effectively reach them are all made easier with advance planning.

I've discovered that simplicity and clarity are crucial. Excessively technical wording can obscure even robust findings. Findings can be made more approachable and remembered by using visual forms like infographics or dashboards, case studies, and storytelling. Involving stakeholders at every stage of the assessment process, as opposed to just at the end, encourages ownership, introspection, and the purposeful application of findings.

However, there are still difficulties. What we can accomplish is frequently limited by time and financial constraints, and it is still challenging to gauge the true impact of communication—whether knowledge is retained, discussed, and used. We need techniques to understand how our work is influencing learning and decision-making because tools and statistics by themselves cannot fully convey the story.

I want to ask the group to consider and communicate: 

 

• Which strategies or resources have aided you in effectively communicating evaluation results?
• How do you increase awareness and ownership by involving stakeholders at every stage of the review process?
• What innovative or low-cost techniques have improved the accessibility and actionability of your findings?
• How do you determine if communication initiatives are genuinely promoting learning and application of results?

The link between evidence and action is communication. We can improve our collective practice and make sure that evaluation actually promotes learning, accountability, and better results by exchanging experiences, examples, and lessons.

Beyond the final report writing; it is really difficult for evaluators to ensure that findings reach the targeted audience effectively. It is a complex process to communicate the evaluation findings to diverse stakeholders. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare a matrix to disseminate the findings or products for different people who can use them in the language best understood by them, maximizing the benefit of the work. The evaluation needs to identify different stakeholders/audience; say donors, program staff, project beneficiaries etc. and place the intended use of findings no.1,2,3 etc. under each category of audience and align them well with the specific objectives/ agenda of different stakeholders/audience to maximize the impacts and use the end product in a practical way. The low-cost participatory strategies, virtual meetings, role plays, demos, audio- visual products help in sharing the findings in accessible and engaging ways. End term evaluation is a method to assess whether the communication efforts of formative or mid-term evaluation findings have led to  actual use and changes in the behavior, attitude or status at the ground or not.

The Crisis of Purpose:
The most significant barrier is the perception of evaluation itself. For many organizations, evaluation has regrettably become an ad hoc exercise in compliance rather than a genuine opportunity for learning and accountability. This fundamental misclassification dictates the communication strategy, leading to reports that are designed to satisfy a funding requirement rather than to inform and engage a diverse audience. When the primary goal is compliance, the communication effort is minimal, often defaulting to a simple upload to an obscure section of a website.
The Visibility Paradox:
The practice of merely sharing evaluation reports through organizational websites is a prime example of this compliance-driven mindset. Organizations rarely follow up by checking their logs and analyzing view counts, which is a missed opportunity for accountability and learning about their audience. The reasons for low engagement are multi-faceted and include:

•Language and Accessibility: Reports often use highly technical jargon and are only available in a single language, immediately alienating key local stakeholders.

•Lack of Awareness: Without a dedicated, proactive communication strategy, most stakeholders—especially those outside the immediate organizational circle—remain unaware that the report even exists.

•The "Boring Report" Syndrome: As noted, reports are often boring to read. Their length, dense text, and academic structure are designed for a specialized audience. 

The Solution: Transforming Reports into Engaging Products

To overcome the "boring report" syndrome and increase the utility of evaluation findings, organizations must embrace a multi-product communication strategy. Instead of relying solely on the lengthy report, they should invest in creating short, accessible products that cater to diverse communication habits. This includes:

•Short Clips/Videos: Utilizing simple animation or interviews with project participants to convey key findings and recommendations in under two minutes.

•Infographics and Data Visualizations: Transforming complex data tables into easily digestible visual summaries for social media and policy briefs.

•Blog Posts and Articles: Creating narrative-driven content that highlights the human impact and actionable recommendations, suitable for wider press and partner newsletters.

These products are not substitutes for the full report but act as gateways, offering people an easy glimpse of the report's value and encouraging deeper engagement.