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This article describes the evaluation of a reproductive health project in which the external evaluator's main role was to identify the project's information gaps and to propose an evaluation methodology. The Adolescent Reproductive Health Education Project has been working with secondary school students in Zimbabwe since 1997, and in 1998 produced a reproductive health pack called "Auntie Stella". This evaluation took place a year later. The article describes the methodologies used (which included a logical framework and questionnaires), the positive qualities of the evaluation, to what extent the evaluation was participatory, how the concept of defection worked, and issues around affordability and shortcuts. It finishes with comments from the staff "with hindsight", and conclusions.

The overview of this issue on the evaluation of children's participation has its roots in a symposium on 'Children's Participation in Community Settings', which was held in Oslo, Norway in June 2000. The symposium brought together members of the Childwatch International Research Network and the Growing Up in Cities project of the MOST Programme of UNESCO. The overview outlines the Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it relates to the articles, and gives a brief description of each contribution in this edition of PLA notes.

This paper presents a range of initiatives the authors are involved in within the field of children's rights and participation. It begins by defining the rights based approach and needs based approach to development and goes on to give details of three projects. The first project is PLAN International Indonesia's training and capacity strengthening for its field staff aimed at promoting a shift towards addressing child rights in its programmes and projects. The paper outlines the tangible benefits for the children and the impact on their lives, for example in family relationships.|The second project is a DFID Innovations Fund research one looking at the ways in which the impacts of development projects on children are addressed in monitoring and evaluation systems, with pilot projects in Nepal and South Africa. It discusses the use of organisational mapping in both these pilot projects and the findings to come out of them|The final case study is about the monitoring and evaluation of the Saying Power Scheme in the UK. Rather than happening at the end of the projects, the monitoring and evaluation process runs parallel to it. The article describes the confidence lines and ôHö method used and concludes with challenges the projects faced

This article looks at the extent youth participation in four evaluation projects. It presents case study data from the projects, two of which were conducted in highly participatory programmes, and two that had little youth participation but had a participatory evaluation process. The first of the projects took place within The Center for Young Women's Development, a youth-run harm reduction programme that employs young homeless women. The second evaluation project focused on the Town Youth Participatory Strategy, a youth-led drop in centre serving low-income Caucasian youth in rural Ottawa. The next was a coalition of youth programmes that had come together to evaluate the juvenile justice system in San Francisco. The final case study focused on a youth drop-in centre serving street children in an urban city in Canada. The article gives details of all the projects and their effect on the young people, with quotes from the young people themselves.