Archive for August, 2011

Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: A list

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

[Aplogies: This page is still at the draft stage, there are some formating and other problems] A suggested definition of a M&E Framework: A document that tells you who is expected to know what, as well as when and how they are expected to know. The list (under development, suggestions welcomed): Clear Horizon: Developing ...

Conference on ICT for Monitoring & Evaluation

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

  Date: 18 October 2011 Venue: New Delhi, India [found courtesy of Sarah Earl] "Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is ubiquitous in every aspect of our lives. Gradually ICT is acquiring a key role in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development projects by reinforcing the efficacy of data management and processing processes. As ICT ...

Evaluating the Complex: Attribution, Contribution and Beyond.

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Kim Forss, Mita Marra and Robert Schwartz, editors. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick. May 2011. Available via Amazon "Problem-solving by policy initiative has come to stay. Overarching policy intiatives are now standard modus operandi for governmental and non-governmental organisations. But complex policy initiatives are not only reserved for the big challenges of ...

DFID&UKES Workshop on Development and Evaluation: Practical Ways Forward.

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

  Date:  WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2011 Venue: BIS Conference Centre, Victor ia, London Objectives: To examine the key contributions of evaluation to international development To provide an update on the accountability framework for evaluation in the UK To explore the role of professional development in building evaluation capacity THIS ONE DAY EVENT will raise important issues ...

Can we obtain the required rigour without randomisation? Oxfam GB’s non-experimental Global Performance Framework

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

Karl Hughes, Claire Hutchings, August 2011. 3ie Working Paper 13. Available as pdf. [found courtesy of @3ieNews] Abstract "Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the international development sector need credible, reliable feedback on whether their interventions are making a meaningful difference but they struggle with how they can practically access it. Impact evaluation is research ...

Evaluation and Assessment of Poverty and Conflict Interventions (EAPC)

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

[from the MercyCorps website] "A significant body of knowledge exists on the relationship between poverty and conflict. Research has shown that low per capita income and slow economic growth drastically increase the chances that a country will experience violence. Driven in part by these findings, donors and their partners are implementing ...

Systematic review: What is the evidence of the impact of microfinance on the well-being of poor people?

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

  by Maren Duvendack, Richard Palmer-Jones, James G Copestake, Lee Hooper, Yoon Loke,  Nitya Rao, August 2011. Available as pdf [found via@poverty _action] Executive summary Background "The concept of microcredit was first introduced in Bangladesh by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Professor Yunus started Grameen Bank (GB) more than 30 years ago with the ...

The evaluation of peacebuilding: Four new reports

Monday, August 15th, 2011

[found  courtesy of Find What Works and @poverty_action] Dave Algoso comments: "The first two reports below resulted from a series of meetings held by the United States Institute of Peace and the Alliance for Peacebuilding; meeting participants came from a range of NGOs, government funders, private foundations, and other agencies. The ...

Comic: The problem with averaging star ratings

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Courtesy of http://xkcd.com/937/ RD Comment: This problem is not unique to websites and smart phones. More than one donor agency uses "traffic lights" (red, amber, green ratings) to summarise complex performance information into a simple-enough-to-digest form for their hard pressed senior managers

Assessing the impact of blogs: Some evidence and analysis

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

See The Impact of Economic Blogs - Part I: Dissemination by David McKenzie, Berk Özler, 2011-08-05. Question 1: “Do blogs lead to increased dissemination of research papers?”" Answer:  "Blogging about a paper causes a large increase in the number of abstract views and downloads in the same month. These increases are massive compared ...