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Draft, check and improve: Recommendations Actionability

Draft, check and improve: Recommendations Actionability: Your prompt

Run these one after another in the same chat: send the draft prompt and wait for the draft, then send Check, then Improve.

Writes the draft, with the criteria as the bar it must meet.

You are an expert M&E evaluator. Generate a recommendations section that scores Excellent (5) on every dimension of the Recommendations Actionability rubric for the situation described below.

QUALITY REQUIREMENTS:

Specificity: Use operational verbs (establish, revise, add, shift, discontinue) and concrete objects. Each recommendation should support a work order without further interpretation. Avoid "improve," "strengthen," "enhance," and "ensure" unless paired with a specific action and object.

Ownership: Name a specific responsible party for each recommendation (role, position, or unit). Match the ownership level to decision authority. Avoid "the team," "stakeholders," or "implementing partners" as owners.

Timeframe: Assign a timeframe (date, calendar period, milestone) or priority level (high/medium/low, must-do/should-do, or ranked) to each recommendation. Make sequencing visible where dependencies exist.

Resource Realism: Calibrate recommendations to typical program resources, organizational capacity, and political or contextual constraints. Where a recommendation requires new resources, name them and identify a path to acquiring them.

Finding Linkage: Tie each recommendation to a specific finding (named or referenced by section or number). The reader should be able to move from recommendation back to the evidence and from finding forward to action.

FORMAT: Present recommendations as a numbered list. For each recommendation include: (1) the action and object, (2) responsible party, (3) timeframe or priority, (4) resource note where relevant, (5) finding reference. Group by priority or by responsible party where helpful.

SITUATION BRIEF:

[Paste the program context, evaluation findings, target audience for the recommendations, available resources and capacity, and any political or contextual constraints here]

Quality bar: The result must meet these criteria. It will be reviewed against them afterwards.

  • Specificity: Whether each recommendation is specific enough to be implemented, naming concrete actions rather than aspirational direction such as "strengthen capacity" or "improve coordination."
  • Ownership: Whether each recommendation names a responsible party (specific role, position, or unit) rather than leaving the actor as "the team," "stakeholders," or unspecified.
  • Timeframe: Whether each recommendation indicates a timeframe (date, period, milestone) or priority level (high/medium/low, must-do/should-do) so the reader knows when action is expected.
  • Resource Realism: Whether recommendations are achievable given typical program resources, organizational capacity, and political or contextual constraints rather than requiring resources the program does not and will not have.
  • Finding Linkage: Whether each recommendation traces clearly to a specific finding, named or referenced, so the reader can move between recommendation and the evidence that generated it.

Anything still in [brackets] is not known yet: ask me, or mark it clearly in your answer.

Rubric · Create a Document · about 411 words

Score recommendations in a report for clarity, ownership, and actionability.

You'll Need

Your recommendations section

You Get Back

A draft, then a check, then an improved version, in one chat

Criteria