Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS

INVITATION: Building the Evidence to Reduce Poverty - launch of the public consultation on DFID’s new Evaluation Policy

Date: Tuesday 9th December, 2.30pm
Venue: Department for International Development, Room 3W11, 1 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5HE

Chair: Sue Owen, Director General of Corporate Performance, DFID. With presentations from David Peretz, Chair of the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact; Nick York, Head of Evaluation Department, DFID

RSVP Kirsty Burns, Evaluation Department, Venue: kirsty-burns@dfid.gov.uk, 01355 84 3602, by Friday 5th December 2008

Background notes

Development is about achieving results that make a difference for the poor in their daily lives.
Evaluation is a key instrument both to inform decision makers and to hold DFID to account for its choices and actions.

The Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI) was established in December 2007, with members selected for their international development and evaluation expertise. Its formation was an important step forward towards strengthening evaluation for DFID. It demonstrated that the UK Government is committed to independent, open, and transparent scrutiny of its development assistance.

The new policy comes at the end of the first year of IACDI’s oversight of DFID’s evaluation work.
It is vital that we also draw on the views of our delivery partners across the world, and this is why the draft policy, along with a proposed list of topics to focus evaluation on over the next three years, is being put out for public consultation.

This event marks the launch of the external consultation process, which will be open for 12 weeks. DFID will launch its final policy in March.

You and your organisation are invited to take part in the consultation process, beginning with this event. There you will have an opportunity to put questions to David Peretz, the Chair of the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact, as well as Sue Owen, DFID’s Director General for Corporate Performance and Nick York, DFID’s Head of Evaluation.

Please let us know promptly if you plan to attend or if a colleague will attend in your place. Names need to be provided to DFID security staff to ensure admission.

Further details will then be sent to those joining the event closer to the time.

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EASY-ECO Saarland Training on Evaluation of Sustainability

Date: 13th to 17th April, 2009
Venue: Lund, Sweden

The next training opportunity within the EASY-ECO series of conferences and training courses will be held from 13th to 17th April, 2009, in Lund, Sweden. The training will focus on the areas of evaluation of energy and sustainable consumption policies and programmes. The training will consist of an e-learning phase (mid-December 2008 to March 2009), and the 5-day on-site case training.

EASY-ECO Trainings explore key elements in sustainability evaluation such as roles  of evaluation in the policy cycle, aproaches to evaluation, stages of evaluation, methods and techniques to conduct evaluation, and evaluation markets. After attending one of the trainings, participants will be able to conduct actual evaluation projects as full-fledged members of an evaluation team. In addition, the trainees will be embedded in a thematic network of leading scientists and practitioners. Read the rest of this entry »

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M & E Short Course, ODG, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Date: 20 July - 14 August 2009
Venue: Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

This course is designed for people with a practical, professional interest in building information systems for more effective learning and decision-making.

OBJECTIVES

The scope and content of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) has changed significantly in the past decade. It is now used extensively in all developed and developing countries to assess performance in both private and public sectors across a wide range of activities. Identification, accurate collection and rigorous analysis of performance indicators are considered essential for managerial feed-back and public accountability in the delivery of services.

The continuing challenge is to develop systems that serve the needs of process and bottom-up approaches to development activities, using combinations of formal survey and participatory techniques. The course in 2009 has been designed to also take full account of current demands that M&E be concerned with institutional relational analysis alongside more conventional activities analysis. Read the rest of this entry »

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Evaluation of the Implementation of the Paris Declaration

Thematic study: The applicability of the Paris Declaration in fragile and conflict-affected situations

Executive Summary

The September 2008 DAC HLF in Accra provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges of applying the Paris Declaration in fragile and conflict-affected situations. This report aims to provide evidence to inform these discussions by:
• Synthesising existing evidence on the aid effectiveness and state-building challenges faced in fragile and conflict-affected situations;
• Exploring the relevance and application of the Paris Declaration and the Fragile States principles in different contexts of fragility and conflict; and
• Setting out the key challenges to improving effective engagement by development partners in fragile situations.

This paper is based on a review of the primary and secondary literature. As part of the review,
four country case studies (Afghanistan, Burundi, the DRC and Nepal) were carried out. These are
included as annexes to the report.
Read the rest of this entry »

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PERSPECTIVES ON IMPACT EVALUATION: Approaches to Assessing Development Effectiveness

An International Conference in Africa for policy-makers, program managers, evaluators, sponsors and other stakeholders in evaluation and development

Date: Sunday 29 March – Thursday 2 April 2009
Venue: Semiramis InterContinental Hotel, Cairo, Egypt

OUR INVITATION

How do we know when ‘development’ is truly successful? What can evaluations tell us about which policies, programs and projects work, why, for whom and under what conditions? How can such evaluations best be conducted to help to bring new hope and opportunities to many millions in Africa and beyond?

It gives us great pleasure to invite you to participate in one of the most exciting evaluation events ever held in Africa. The African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), the Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation (NONIE) and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) have joined forces to bring to Africa some of the best expertise from all continents on one of the most discussed topics among evaluation and development communities worldwide.

For the conference we define impact evaluations as those studies which concern themselves with determining and understanding the short, medium and long term outcomes or impacts of projects, programs and policies. We do not limit the term to any specific methodology in any particular discipline.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Participatory Impact Assessment: a Guide for Practitioners

The Feinstein International Center has been developing and adapting participatory approaches to measure the impact of livelihoods based interventions since the early nineties. Drawing upon this experience, the guide aims to provide practitioners with a broad framework for carrying out project level Participatory Impact Assessments (PIA) of livelihoods interventions in the humanitarian sector. Other than in some health, nutrition, and water interventions in which indicators of project performance should relate to international standards, for many interventions there are no ‘gold standards’ for measuring project impact. This guide aims to bridge this gap by outlining a tried and tested approach to measuring the impact of livelihoods projects. The tools in the guide have been field tested over the past two years in a major research effort, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and involving five major humanitarian NGOs working across Africa.

Download a PDF copy of the guide here

Posted in Humanitarian aid, Impact assessment, Livelihoods, NGO, Participation, Uncategorized | No Comments » |  Print This Post

Is Empowerment Efficient?: A Data Envelopment Analysis of 260 Local Associations in Bangladesh

“This report presents one of the first formal analyses, outside the microfinance area, of the efficiency (as different from the effectiveness) of a development NGO program. The author [Aldo Benini], who invites comments and suggestions, offers this summary:

“Empowerment, a concept with a successful twenty-century cultural career, has been recognized for its relevance and, increasingly, effectiveness in liberating the poor, both at the individual and local community level. Efforts to create valid measurement tools have advanced, with a focus on causality, thus on effectiveness of empowerment programs. The efficiency of such programs, in other words considerations of optimal resource use, has not been investigated widely, with the exception of microfinance projects. Such programs are sheltered from efficiency pressures by the subsidies of aid chains and by the need to work out, in precarious social environments, organizational arrangements that produce credible empowerment effects in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

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GRDC Helpdesk Research Report: Monitoring and Evaluation of Participation in Governance

M&E of Participation in Governance: Please identify toolkits, methodologies and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of programmes aimed at improving governance (particularly of urban infrastructure/services). Please highlight methods of relevance to NGOs for monitoring and evaluating poor people’s participation in decision-making processes.

Helpdesk response
Key findings: There is generally very little information available on evaluating the effectiveness of the inclusive/participatory aspects of governance programmes. A particular difficulty is that there is a limited understanding of what improvements in governance actually look like. Nevertheless, some common principles identified in the literature include the need for both quantitative and qualitative indicators and the importance of focusing on purpose, processes, context and perception as well as outputs and outcomes.

Some common indicators for assessing the effectiveness of participatory programmes include:

• the level of participation of different types of stakeholders
• institutional arrangements to facilitate engagement
• active engagement of stakeholders in the programme, and confidence and willingness to get involved in future
• the extent to which participants are mobilising their own resources
• transparent access to and use of resources
• equality of access to decision-making
• transformation of power through e.g. new relationships and access to new networks
• level of trust and ownership of the process behavioural changes of stakeholders (values, priorities, aims)
• level of self-reliance, self-management, capacity and understanding of the issues sustainability and ability to resolve conflict.

Full response: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/HD549.pdf

Produced by the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre

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Online Training: Introduction to Social Audit

Date: Tuesday 28th October 2008 2.00pm to 4.00pm
Venue: Online

This two hour Social Audit introduction will include:

• Why Social Audit
• What type of organisation uses Social Audit
• What are the benefits of Social Audit
• The 4 stages of Social Audit
• Social Audit Governance
• Social Audit External View
• Social Audit Internal View
• Social Planning and Accounting
• Presenting the Social Audit

This course is particularly suited to groups and individuals engaged in social enterprises, NGOs, development agencies and social economy organisations.

Freer Spreckley
Email: f.spreckley@locallivelihoods.com
Website http://www.locallivelihoods.com
Organisation Local Livelihoods

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Michael Scriven teaches “An Introduction to Evaluation” online

Date: Oct. 11-12 and Nov. 1-2, 2008
Venue: Claremont Graduate University, California

Four Days of Evaluation Training with a Master in the Field: Michael Scriven teaches “An Introduction to Evaluation”

Dr. Michael Scriven, one of the founders of Evaluation Science as a modern discipline, will be offering two 2-day courses on the foundations, power, and practice of evaluation. These courses will be taught in a live virtual classroom environment, and are open to the public. Thanks to the online nature of the course, these are available to anyone anywhere on the globe.

Save Your Seat Today: Total cost: $350 for four sessions

Full course descriptions are available on our website. Don’t miss your chance to learn firsthand from this giant in the field!

Meeting Schedule: Oct/11/08 and Oct/12/08 (Part I)  Nov/1/08 and Nov/2/08 (Part II) 10 am to 1 pm PST

Technology Requirements: Computer microphone and speakers required. (Webcam not required, but can be a plus.)

Register Online Today! http://www.cgu.edu/pages/5164.asp

India Swearingen
SBOS Outreach Assistant
School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences
Claremont Graduate University
outreach@cgu.edu

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