Review of 13 evaluations of REFLECT

Reflect (Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community Techniques) was developed as an approach to adult literacy between 1993 and 1995 through field practice in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador. This is the first in a series of reports produced by the International Reflect Circle, CIRAC. It is an attempt to consolidate learning from 13 different external evaluations of Reflect that took place mostly in 2000. The purposes of this review are threefold: À To synthesise and summarise the 13 evaluations, identifying trends in literacy and empowerment outcomes À To identify and classify trends in approaches to evaluation and the indicators used À To draw out some key hypotheses to frame further research/evaluations The report firstly gives summaries of the evaluations. It then goes on to explore lessons and issues arising from Reflect Programmes and then looks at lessons learned from the evaluations. Final sections look at the indicators and guidelines used. Three main recommendations are proposed in the report: À Reflect should be applied in a cross-disciplinary way, across different types of development programmes, not necessarily even with an education bias, be they government or NGO provided À Reflect programmes must develop a culture of evaluation amongst participants À A set of programme pointers are generated which assist in the implementation and successful running of the programme. NB The International Reflect Circle (CIRAC) was set up in March 2000 as a democratic space for Reflect practitioners from diverse organisations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. It seeks to promote solidarity of Reflect practitioners around the world in order to strengthen international exchange and learning and build a wider movement. More details can be found at the CIRAC website: www.reflect-action.org