Evaluation by the Community and Other Parties
The cooperative "Barro Nuevo" in a neighborhood in Puebla makes eco-bricks from recycled PET for benches in the community garden. Its books balance and production runs smoothly. But a neighbor complains at the assembly: "Ever since you started working here, my yard smells strange." Why hadn't the team noticed? And how do you find out what the neighborhood thinks?
What external evaluation is
In internal evaluation, the team itself reviews its work using indicators such as pieces per day or percent of rejects. In external evaluation, other people do it: the community, the users, and other agencies (the city government, Conagua, the CFE, a neighboring school, another cooperative).
Why is it needed? Because the team measures what it already knows matters to it. Someone who lives next to the workshop notices things the team never thought about.
What the external view sees that the internal view does not
Each outside group looks at a different aspect:
| Who evaluates | What they can notice |
|---|---|
| Neighbors | Smells, noise, smoke, truck traffic, trash in the street |
| Users or customers | Quality, price, usefulness, whether the product meets their need |
| Neighborhood committee or assembly | Jobs created, use of the land, whether the benefit reaches everyone |
| Authorities (city government, Conagua) | Permits, water use, waste handling |
These effects are impacts: consequences of the technical system on the community and on nature. They can be positive (jobs, a clean lot) or negative (smell, noise, prices that leave some families out).
Internally, drying the eco-bricks with steam is efficient and the numbers add up, but the external evaluation finds that the smelly vapor bothers the neighboring houses.…
Internally, drying the eco-bricks with steam is efficient and the numbers add up, but the external evaluation finds that the smelly vapor bothers the neighboring houses. Explain why the internal evaluation was not enough to see the problem, and propose one technical adjustment and one organizational adjustment to solve it without giving up the venture.
How to ask: the neighborhood survey
A common way to evaluate from the outside is a survey. A badly written question gives useless answers. Simple rules:
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Ask about just one thing at a time.
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Use clear language, without technical jargon.
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Avoid leading the answer ("Don't you think the workshop is very good?").
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Offer measurable options (a scale from 1 to 5, yes/no, or "not at all, a little, a lot").
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Leave space for comments, because people sometimes mention things nobody anticipated.
The cooperative wants to know how the neighborhood values its venture (jobs created, cleanup of the lot, noise, prices). Write two questions for a neighborhood survey…
The cooperative wants to know how the neighborhood values its venture (jobs created, cleanup of the lot, noise, prices). Write two questions for a neighborhood survey that would yield useful information and explain what you would do with the answers to improve the technical system.
Using the answers to adjust the system
Surveying without acting is pointless. With the results, you have to decide what to change. The adjustments are of two types:
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Technical: they change the process, the material, or the machine (a muffler, a filter, a different machine schedule, a different fuel).
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Organizational: they change how the team is organized and how it relates to the community (schedules, shifts, meetings, division of tasks, a follow-up committee).
This cycle is one of continuous improvement: you evaluate, adjust, and evaluate again. External evaluation feeds back into the first phase of the project, identifying needs.
The cooperative wants to know how the neighborhood values its venture (jobs created, cleanup of the lot, noise, prices). Write two questions for a neighborhood survey…
The cooperative wants to know how the neighborhood values its venture (jobs created, cleanup of the lot, noise, prices). Write two questions for a neighborhood survey that would yield useful information and explain what you would do with the answers to improve the technical system.
Internally, drying the eco-bricks with steam is efficient and the numbers add up, but the external evaluation finds that the smelly vapor bothers the neighboring houses.…
Internally, drying the eco-bricks with steam is efficient and the numbers add up, but the external evaluation finds that the smelly vapor bothers the neighboring houses. Explain why the internal evaluation was not enough to see the problem, and propose one technical adjustment and one organizational adjustment to solve it without giving up the venture.
Internal and external together
Neither one replaces the other. Internal evaluation is fast and detailed; external evaluation shows impacts and is more credible to the community.
| Internal | External | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | The team itself | Community, users, other agencies |
| What it measures | Pieces per day, rejects, liters per batch | Smell, noise, prices, jobs, acceptance |
| Advantage | Fast, knows the process | Detects what the team doesn't see |
| Risk | Blind spots | Subjective opinions; you have to ask well |
Back to the beginning: "Barro Nuevo" didn't notice the smell because its evaluation was only internal and didn't measure smell or ask the neighbors. The complaint at the assembly is external evaluation. The team can respond with a technical adjustment (a filter or ventilation for the drying area) and an organizational one (announcing schedules and creating a neighborhood follow-up committee).