International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities.

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

  Date: 12-14 September 2011 Venue: Johannesburg, South Africa UNDP Evaluation Office and the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Africa are co-hosting the second International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities. See the official website here. This is a follow up conference to the 2009 International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities held in Casablanca, ...

US Office of Management and Budget: Increased emphasis on Program Evaluations

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Via Xceval: No exactly breaking news (11 months later), but still likely to be of wide interest: October 7, 2009 M-10-01 MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES FROM: Peter R. Orszag Director SUBJECT: Increased Emphasis on Program Evaluations Rigorous, independent program evaluations can be a key resource in determining whether government programs are achieving ...

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

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

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 ...

Learning purposefully in capacity  development 

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Why, what and when to measure? An opinion paper prepared for IIEP,  by Alfredo Ortiz and Peter Taylor, INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (IDS), 25th July, 2008 >>Full text<< Abstract Many capacity development (CD) programs and processes aim at long?term sustainable change, which depends on seeing many smaller changes in at times almost invisible fields (rules, incentives, behaviours, power, coordination etc.). Yet, most evaluation processes of CD tend to focus on short? term outputs focused on clearly visible changes. This opinion paper will offer some ideas on how to deal with this paradox, by examining how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) does, or could, make a difference to CD.  It explores whether there is something different and unique about M&E of CD that isn’t addressed by predominant methods and ways of thinking about M&E, and which might be better addressed by experimenting with learning?based approaches to M&E of CD. Contents 1.  INTRODUCTION—WHAT SHOULD MONITORING &EVALUATION (M&E) TELL US ABOUT CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT (CD)? ................................. 1 2.  CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT MEANS AND ENDS—“WHAT ARE WE MEASURING AND WHEN SHOULD WE MEASURE IT?”  .... 5 2.1.  IN SEARCH OF PERFORMANCE AND IMPACT .. 5 2.2.  STANDING CAPACITY  .... 10 3.  WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM M & E OF CD DILEMMAS? ... 13 3.1.  DEVELOPMENT BEING A PROCESS ALREADY IN MOTION ........ 13 3.2.  LINEAR VERSUS COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS (CAS) THINKING, PROGRAMMING AND MEASUREMENT ....... 14 3.3.  ATTRIBUTION ... 17 3.4.  DONOR ACCOUNTING FOCUS VERSUS OPEN ...

A brief summary and links to IDEAS global assembly held in Jo-Burg, March 2009

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

provided by Denis Jobin (IDEAS VP  2006-2009), in a posting on the MandE NEWS email list... “Getting to Results: Evaluation Capacity Building and Development” The IDEAS Global Assembly, Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa, March 17-20, 2009. The International Development Evaluation Association‘s Global Assembly focused on the issues involved in evaluation capacity building, and how ...

Symposium: “Getting to Results: Evaluation Capacity Building and Development”

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

International Development Evaluation Association Date: March 17-20, 2009 Venue: Johannesburg, South Africa) CALL FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPER PROPOSALS. Submission Deadline: January 12, 2009 Please note that scholarships for individuals from developing or transition countries are available. Introduction: The Board of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) is pleased to announce its next Global Assembly on March 18-20, ...