Good evaluations are hard to come by....

So while researching for my global health research paper, I have become increasingly more frustrated trying to find easy to read evaluations of programs. I am currently trying to find information on two poverty alleviation programs: Oportunidades and Fome Zero, implemented in Mexico and Brazil respectively. I am really just trying to see if the programs were successful, which you think would be an easy task, but has turned out to be more difficult than expected. Of course I have found the 300 page documents where are answers are hidden inside, but who really wants to sift through all those pages. I just need a straightforward, easy to read document that tells me if the programs were successful or not. This reminds me of what we learned in class that when evaluation is done, the results need to be easy to read and precise in order for stakeholders and people interested in the program to be able to understand if the program was successful or not. I definitely understand why this point is important, I feel like I am wasting so much time trying to find what I need. Not to mention my research solidifies why evaluation is so important; otherwise I wouldn't know if the programs are worth recommending implementation in other communities. I guess I just assume that evaluation is done on all interventions, it does seem really wasteful to spend money on an intervention and not know if it was successful or should be implemented in other communities. I am glad evaluation has been done on these programs I am researching, but I wish the results were presented in an easier to read format.