The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health has developed a workbook providing guidelines for writing a good final evaluation report (2013). The workbook offers useful information for program managers and evaluators in the field of public health on how to clearly express the purpose and focus of the evaluation, how to outline the program in the evaluation report, and how to describe the data collection and analysis process.

The CDC workbook defines elements an evaluation report should include, and provides practical tools on how to develop a final report, such as worksheets and resources. A written final evaluation report is an important part of a program evaluation that describes how a tobacco control program was monitored, presents conclusions of an evaluation, and suggests recommendations for the future. It is one of many tools for demonstrating the evaluation results.

A final report is useful for gaining support for a program among stakeholders, financiers and decision-makers by sharing evaluation information. An evaluation report fosters accountability and feasibility of the program as it demonstrates the inputs, activities and outputs in a transparent way. Together with outcome information, the evaluation report can be used to identify what effects did certain activities have, and why and how changes were made during the program.

Source: Developing an Effective Evaluation Report: Setting the Course for Effective Program Evaluation. Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, 2013.

Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/tobacco_control_programs/surveillance_evaluation/evaluation_report/index.htm