This Guide to Evaluating Rural Extension has been developed by the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). The purpose is to support those involved in extension evaluation to choose how to conduct more comprehensive, rigorous, credible and useful evaluations. The Guide supports readers to understand different types of evaluation, to make decisions on what is most appropriate for their circumstances, and to access further sources of theoretical and practical information. The Guide is intended to primarily be used by four sets of evaluation stakeholders:

• Those commissioning and managing evaluations
• Professional evaluators and staff responsible for monitoring systems
• Professionals involved in training and educating evaluators
• Researchers looking for ways to synergise their efforts with evaluation initiatives

The process of preparing this Guide began in 2010 with the production of a Review of Literature on Evaluation Methods Relevant to Extension and a Meta-evaluation of Extension Case Studies. These materials, combined with extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders, were then used to as background for the development of a draft version of this Guide. During 2011 the Guide was finalised based on feedback received.

There are routes to facing the challenges imposed by the situations described above. One of the most important is through technological change derived from research, extension, and innovation, variables that are becoming more important and strategic for growth and development. There is a new interest in repositioning and strengthening rural extension, which has become considerably weakened and has nearly disappeared over the past few decades. The Ministers of Agriculture of 34 countries in the Americas issued a statement during their October 2011 meeting in Costa Rica in order to promote agricultural innovation. They also made a commitment to promote investment in order to generate new knowledge and strengthen extension systems

Rural extension plays a significant and irreplaceable role in an innovation system that creates, designs, validates, and promotes new ideas, solutions, technologies, and forms of management focused on the resolution of problems and satisfaction of the needs of farmers and rural inhabitants and the organizations that represent them. In view of the above, this document presents proposals for making rural extension a key part of innovation systems focused on rural territorial development. This is understood as the productive and institutional transformation of a specific space in order to reduce rural poverty

Rural extension2 has played an important role in the promotion of agriculture as a motor for economic growth and continues to be an effective tool for helping thousands of families to improve their living conditions in terms of food safety and economic and social management. In Latin America, extension systems will not prove their effectiveness in the reduction of rural poverty unless their strategies and actions are complemented by solid public policies, investments, and other services.