This book is the fourth and final publication to arise from a project entitled "Weapons for Development" and funded by the Government of Japan. This two-year project assessed small arms and light weapons collection programmes in which the incentives provided to people to give up their weapons were based on community development projects. The project researchers, G. Mugumya and S. Koyama, applied a new evaluation method, namely participatory research, to the case studies of Albania, Cambodia and Mali. The participatory research method places community members at the centre of the evaluation process, since the primary stakeholders are in the best position to evaluate the schemes that are meant to impact upon their lives and resolve their security concerns.
This volume compares the findings of the participatory evaluation method with the standard, non-participatory evaluations that have been conducted on weapons for development programmes. The result of the comparison shows that the standard evaluation method paints a broad picture of project implementation, while participatory evaluation is able to document more finely how local communities' roles, perceptions and expectations determine the success of weapon collection programmes.
The author examines the constructive compatibility between both evaluation techniques and the results thus obtained, in order to discuss what implications these differences suggest for future arms reduction policy-making. A combination of both evaluation methods could assist governments, donor agencies, international organizations and implementing agencies to develop and implement more effective post-conflict disarmament efforts.
Citation: Shukuko Koyama (2006). "Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Methodologies in Weapon Collection Programmes", Weapons for Development, UNIDIR, Geneva.