Developing a Gender-Responsive Evaluation Framework for Social Development Programmes in Nigeria

Programme evaluation in Nigeria's social development sector rarely employs gender-responsive methodologies, resulting in evaluations that miss differential gender impacts and perpetuate gender-blind programming cycles. This study develops a Gender-Responsive Evaluation Framework (GREF) for social development programmes in Nigeria, grounded in evaluation science, feminist methodology, and empirical assessment of current evaluation practice. A pragmatist paradigm underpins a multi-phase design: systematic review of 50 social programme evaluation reports, survey of 130 evaluators and programme managers, participatory co-design workshops with 60 beneficiary women from four zones, and framework validation through expert Delphi consultation. Feminist evaluation theory, participatory research methodology, and utilisation-focused evaluation guided framework construction. Findings reveal that gender considerations are absent from methodology sections in 68% of reviewed evaluation reports, with gender-disaggregated data collected but not analysed in a further 18% of cases. Evaluator gender training is limited, and commissioning agencies rarely specify gender-responsive standards in evaluation terms of reference. The resulting GREF provides practical guidance on evaluation design, data collection instruments, analysis protocols, and reporting standards that are sensitive to gender dimensions and power dynamics. The GREF is pilot-tested on three live programme evaluations with demonstrated improvements in gender insight generation. Keywords: gender-responsive evaluation, social development, Nigeria, feminist methodology, programme evaluation