Consider the realities and uncertainties around implementation timelines when designing evaluations. For grant facility projects, the short period of time between the authorization of grantees’ projects and implementation means that the window for collecting baseline data is limited and often difficult to predict. The evaluation team spent years closely monitoring project implementation and refining their approach, which increased evaluation costs, as grantees struggled to obtain regulatory approval. For example, grant facility evaluations could consider an ex-post methodology, meaning baseline data is collected after implementation, if doing so would not overly reduce rigor. This evaluation’s solar home system component has an ex-post methodology.
Lesson Learned