Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS

UNICEF Evaluation Report Standards

Evaluation Office, UNICEF NYHQ , September 2004

>The UNICEF Evaluation Report Standards< have been created as a transparent tool for quality assessment of evaluation reports.  This document outlines what the Standards are, the rationale for each standard and how they are applied.  The Standards are used by UNICEF Evaluation Office to assess
evaluations for inclusion in the organisation’s Evaluation and Research Database to strengthen the Database as a learning tool.  Application of Standards will also provide feedback to UNICEF Country Offices on how the evaluation is seen by someone outside of the evaluation process.

The Standards are also intended for use by UNICEF offices and partners commissioning evaluations to establish the criteria against which the final report will be assessed.  The UNICEF Evaluation Report Standards draw from and are complementary to key references on standards in evaluation design and process increasingly adopted in the international evaluation community

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Fit for the Future Conference: Measuring Impact, Communicating Results

Fit for the Future Conference: Measuring Impact, Communicating Results,
Date: 28 April 2010
Venue: London.
Find out more and book here: http://www.charitycomms.org.uk/measuring_impact

It’s not enough for charity communicators to simply tell the world about the great work their organisation does. Today charities are expected to demonstrate their impact. Knowing how well your charity performs will help it to improve, develop, inspire and influence the right people. Join us at this one day conference to learn about the nuts and bolts of measuring and communicating impact.

On the agenda:

* Practical guides on how to measure impact
* ‘How we did it’ case studies from other charities including The National Trust, RNID, and WRVS
* Advice on bringing results information to life
* Learn how to attach financial value to your impact using SROI
* Hear from City Bridge Trust’s Chief Grants Officer on what results information they look for in grant applications
* NCVO explores how to effectively evaluate campaigns

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Publications on accountability of technological innovation

New publications by the One World Trust:

• “An Accountability Framework for Technological Innovation“, ILAC Initiative (Institutional Learning and Change) Brief In this Brief, we offer recommendations to help an organization conducting technological research and design (R&D) to become more accountable. We provide recommendations based on four principles developed by the One World Trust which capture the dimensions of accountability. (The ILAC Initiative aims to increase the contribution of the CGIAR to poverty alleviation by improving planning, monitoring and evaluation of collaborative agricultural research for development. It’s great that they have been able to publish this Brief applying the APRO framework to agricultural science.)
• “Accountability of innovation: A literature review, framework and guidelines to strengthen accountability of organisations engaged in technological innovation“: This paper synthesises some of the most important lessons learned arising from the evolving understanding of innovation, and provides a framework of accountability for organisations engaged in technological R&D. The guidelines focus on supporting organisations to become more effective, while simultaneously ensuring that they adhere to ethical standards in their innovation.

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2010 ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATORS NETWORKING FORUM

Environmental Evaluation: Quality in an Era of Results-Based Performance
Date: June 7-8, 2010
Venue: Washington, D.C.

The Environmental Evaluators Network (EEN) will host its 5th annual Forum in Washington DC at The George Washington University on June 7,8 2010. The purpose of the EEN is to advance the field of environmental program and policy evaluation through more systematic and collective learning among evaluators and evaluation users. The 5th annual EEN Forum will bring together evaluators and users of evaluation to explore and articulate the significance of the emerging era of results-based performance on the quality of environmental evaluations.

The Issue:

Growing awareness of the interdependencies of our social, economic, and ecological systems requires more efficient use of scarce resources to evaluate complex problems. In this heightened era of accountability, recipients and funders of environmental programs want evidence of what works, and what does not, and better mechanisms for using real time information for decision-making. How will the era of results-based performance affect the quality of environmental evaluations? What must be done to improve the quality of environmental evaluations to meet the requirements and desire for better and more accessible evidence of program and policy effectiveness? Read the rest of this entry »

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“Monitoring and Evaluating Capacity Building: Is it really that difficult?’

By Nigel Simister with Rachel Smith. Published by INTRAC.

“Whilst few doubt the importance of capacity building, and the need for effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to support this work, the M&E of capacity building is as much a challenge now as it was two decades ago. This paper examines both theory and current practice, and aims to promote debate on some of the key barriers to progress.

The paper is primarily concerned with capacity building within civil society organisations (CSOs), although many of the lessons also apply to commercial and state organisations. It is based on a literature review and interviews with capacity building providers in the North and South. Read the rest of this entry »

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Evaluating Climate Change and Development

From: Juha Uitto , via the MandE NEWS email list

Folks,

I’d like to draw your attention to a new book, ‘Evaluating Climate Change and Development‘, edited by Rob van den Berg and Osvaldo Feinstein. This to my knowledge is the first volume that systematically addresses issues relating to climate change from an evaluation point of view. How do we know that the policies, programs and projects targeted towards mitigation, adaptation and vulnerability actually work? The book reviews evidence and approaches and also contains a wealth of case studies from the developing world.
…end of email…

Amazon Abstract: Climate change has become one of the most important global issues of our time, with far-reaching natural, socio- economic, and political effects. To address climate change and development issues from the perspective of evaluation, an international conference was held in Alexandria, Egypt. This book distills the essence of that timely conference, building on the experiences of more than 400 reports and studies presented. Developing countries may be particularly vulnerable to the expected onslaught of higher temperatures, rising sea levels, changing waterfall patterns, and increasing natural disasters. All societies will have to reduce their vulnerability to these changes, and this book describes how vulnerabilities may be addressed in a systematic manner so that governments and local communities may better understand what is happening. Different approaches are also discussed, including the use of human security as a criterion for evaluation as well as ways to deal with risk and uncertainty. “Evaluating Climate Change and Development” presents a rich variety of methods to assess adaptation through monitoring and evaluation. The volume deals with climate change, development, and evaluation; challenges and lessons learned from evaluations; mitigation of climate change; adaptation to climate change; vulnerability, risks and climate change; and, presents a concluding chapter on the road ahead. Collectively the authors offer a set of approaches and techniques for the monitoring and evaluation of climate change.

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Meetings on evaluation and complexity

(Via Ben Ramalingam)

“The latest post on Aid on the Edge post compiles presentations and reports from meetings on evaluation and complexity (NORAD, Panos, Mokoro) that have taken place in the past few months and years, as well as planned meetings later this year”

The list:

• Presentations given at a 2008 NORAD conference ‘Evaluating the Complex‘ - Michael Quinn Paton’s keynoteand my own seminar presentation
• The full report of the July 2009 meeting in London, hosted by Panos, available on the Meetings page
• Details of a forthcoming 2 day conference on Evaluation and Complexity: Evaluation Revisited: Improving the Quality of Evaluative Practice by Embracing Complexity” – May 20-21, 2010, the Netherlands

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Invitation to submit research accountability tools and systems for online database

Dear colleagues

I’m writing to ask you to submit any tools you know of, or have developed, which you think could help build the accountability of research organisations. These will be entered into a publicly available online database.   The One World Trust has been working with our partners to formulate an accountability framework for organisations conducting research (whether civil society, universities, private or public sector). The database will make available tools which will help research managers reflect on and improve the accountability of the programs they manage .   Specifically, we are looking for descriptions and accounts of innovative tools and processes which fall within the following broad areas:

• Tools suitable for the monitoring and evaluation of research and advocacy;
• Tools for participatory planning of research;
• Tools to assist organisational learning and change;
• Good practices and policies of transparency in research;
• Good practices for working accountably in partnerships and networks;
• Community engagement strategies with research participants;
• Tools to ensure you ‘close the loop’ and manage feedback from your research participants;
• Examples of where organisations conducting research have integrated external stakeholders into governance structures; and
• Ethics standards for participatory and applied research.

Ideally, the description would take the form of a document or case study.   For those interested in submitting a tool, please get in contact with the One World Trust team at apro@oneworldtrust.org. For more information on the project, please visit our website. All relevant tools will be included in the database, which we propose to put online and publicly available by August 2010. If we think the tool is not relevant, we do promise to get back to you and explain why!   Thanks very much for your time,   Brendan.

–
Brendan Whitty
Principal Researcher
One World Trust
3 Whitehall Court, London, SW1A 2EL, UK
> Now Available!  The APRO toolkit provides guidelines outlining accountability principles for research organisations.
http://www.oneworldtrust.org
Tel +44 (0)20 7766 3463
Charity No. 210180

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Conference: “Evaluation Revisited: Improving the Quality of Evaluative Practice by Embracing Complexity.”

Date: 20-21 May 2010
Venue: Netherlands

On May 20-21, 2010, a conference on evaluation for development will be held in The Netherlands: “Evaluation Revisited: Improving the Quality of Evaluative Practice by Embracing Complexity.”

This conference focuses on how evaluative practice can be improved, given the need to view much of development as a process of social transformation and, therefore, complex. Current evaluation practice has not yet embraced the full implications of assessing ‘the complex’ and existing approaches often fall woefully short. During the conference, participants can explore concrete evaluation practices that reconcile an understanding of complex societal change processes with quality standards, including rigorous, ethical concerns, appropriateness and feasibility. Read the rest of this entry »

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European Evaluation Society Conference – Evaluation in the Public Interest – Participation, Politics and Policy

Date: 6-8 October 2010
Venue: Prague, Czech Republic

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the EES Board of Directors we are pleased to announce that the next EES biennial conference will take place in Prague, Czech Republic on 6-8 October 2010, preceded by professional development training sessions on October 4-5. We have launched a new website www.ees2010prague.org where you can find all useful information in regards to the conference. The website will be regularly updated, for newest information please visit section Home – News.

Please find attached a Call for abstract brochure with all information regarding the abstract submission and programme strands.
We want to encourage a wide range of contributions to the conference. Therefore we offer different types of presentation formats, which should be indicated while submitting your abstract. All abstracts are welcome and the best ones are likely to be published or otherwise disseminated by EES. But in addition participants can make use of a wide spectrum of possibilities (panels and symposia, round tables, posters, etc). We also invite creative and original vehicles using the performing arts, film, music, etc.

The Conference topic „Evaluation in the Public Interest – Participation, Politics and Policy“  will be discussed in five strands you are welcome to submit the proposals. Submission strands are:

1.    Ethics, capabilities and transparency
2.    Evaluation and politics
3.    Evaluation producers, beneficiaries, users and decision makers
4.    Sector policy evaluation
5.    Evaluation in developing and transition economies

The Conference administration is undertaken by:

CZECH-IN s.r.o.
Professional Event & Congress Organiser
Prague Congress Centre
5. kvetna 65
140 21 Prague 4
Czech Republic

In case of any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at:

Tel: +420 261 174 304
Fax: +420 261 174 307
Email: info@ees2010prague.org, abstracts@ees2010prague.org

Abstract submission is to be open at 18 February 2010

Registration is to be open at 18 February 2010

For more information please visit www.ees2010prague.org

Thank you very much
Looking forward to welcoming you in Prague in October 2010

Conference Secretariat and EES Conference co-chairs Marie Kaufmann & Claudine Voyadzis

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