Date: OCTOBER 1-5, 2012
Venue: HELSINKI, Finland

Conference website

EVALUATION IN THE NETWORKED SOCIETY: NEW CONCEPTS, NEW CHALLENGES, NEW SOLUTIONS

The Tenth Biennial Conference of the European Evaluation Society will be the international evaluation event of the year. It will be held in Helsinki, Finland during 3-5 October 2012 (pre-conference workshops 1- 2 October).

Evaluators are living in times of unprecedented challenge and opportunity. The networked information environment is inducing fundamental changes in culture, politics and society. Whereas the industrial society was reliant on centralised, hierarchical, high cost information systems, the networked society is characterised by decentralised, voluntary and cheap information exchange.

The advent of social networking without borders will have fundamental implications for evaluation agendas and methods. First, it will redefine the value and legitimacy of evaluation in global social accountability networks and accelerate the internationalisation of evaluation. Second, evaluation cultures, structures and processes will have to deal  with the limitless quantity, speed and accessibility of information generated by new technologies, e.g. drawing useful meaning from huge data bases, assessing the validity of an exploding number of rating systems, league tables, etc. in ways consistent with democratic values of freedom of expression and protection of privacy.

The new information technologies offer new ways of making authority responsible and accountable as well as bringing real time citizen involvement and reliable information to bear on public policy making. What are the implications of an information economy that allows instant connectivity to thousands of program beneficiaries suddenly able to make their voices heard? Will the spread of mobile telephony to the weakest and most vulnerable members of society and the rising power of social networks act as evaluative and recuperative mechanisms or will they merely aggravate social instability? What are the risks of network capture by single or special interest groups and cooptation of evaluation?

The rise of the evaluation discipline is inextricably linked to the values central to any democratic society. How will these values be protected in a context where weak links and increasing inequalities have created new fissures in society? How will evaluation independence be protected against the pressures of vested interests intent on retaining control over the commanding heights of the society?

To help explore these and other issues relevant to the prospects of evaluation in Europe and beyond the Conference will stimulate evaluators to share ideas, insights and opinions about a wide range of topics that will throw light on the future roles of evaluation in the networked society. The Conference will help draw evaluation lessons learnt in distinct sectors and regions of the world. It will also examine the potential of alternative and mixed evaluation methods in diverse contexts and probe the challenges of assessing public interest in complex adaptive systems and networks.

To these ends the Conference will offer participants a wide choice of vehicles for the transmission of evaluation experience and knowledge: keynote speeches, paper presentations, panel debates, posters, etc.  As in past years the EES Conference will aim at a pluralistic agenda that respects the legitimacy of different standpoints, illuminates diverse perspectives and promotes principled debate. The Conference will also provide an opportunity for evaluation networks to interact and improve the coherence of their activities.

We look forward to welcoming you in Helsinki. It is one of the world leaders in modern design and it provides Europe with a world class high tech platform. It also boasts a 450 year history and lays claim to being the warmest, friendliest, most “laid back” city of Northern Europe. Its nearby archipelago of islands offers an ideal environment for sea cruises and its neighboring old growth forests provide an idyllic setting for restful nature walks. We promise you an enjoyable as well as a professionally rewarding time!!

Ian Davies, President, European Evaluation Society
Maria Bustelo, Vice President and President Elect, European Evaluation Society

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 is a whole new world for many professionals in the development sector, it becomes important to seek synergies from leading development actors and practitioners for perspective building, dissemination of knowledge and furthering the use of ICT in monitoring, evaluation and information system. How ICT influences on the collective activities and interest of the society in general has become an ineluctable question which could be well answered through the monitoring and evaluation process.”

“In this context a conference on ICT for monitoring and evaluation is being organized by Sambodhi Research & Communications on October 18, 2011 in New Delhi. The theme of the conference is “ICT for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Information System: Exploring New Frontiers.”

To participate in the conference click the following to download

For more information on the conference
Contact : Dr. Mary/Ms. Padmavati
Email : contact@sambodhi.co.in
Tel : 011             47593300-99

Produced by CTA, KIT, IICD. 2nd (2009) edition

PDF version available online

“About the Toolkit

The Smart Toolkit focuses on the evaluation of information projects, products and services from a learning perspective. It looks at evaluation within the context of the overall project cycle, from project planning and implementation to monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment, and then at the evaluation process itself, the tools involved and examples of their application.The theme running throughout the toolkit is:

Participatory evaluation for learning and impact

The emphasis is on internal evaluation – or ‘self-evaluation’ – rather than external evaluation. Internal evaluation contributes to organisational learning and represents a significant shift from traditional evaluation, which has tended to be donor-driven to meet the demand for accountability and compliance. If evaluation is to achieve its ultimate objectives of enhancing learning and demonstrating impact, it needs to be applied with confidence in a systematic and coherent way.

Why ‘smart’?

In 2001, a group of information practitioners from various development agencies, led by CTA, KIT and IICD, began working together to produce a manual that would support self-evaluation by information practitioners. At their first meeting the word ‘smart’ was chosen to emphasise ‘best practice’ and as an oblique reference to the SMART indicators (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) common in evaluation literature.

Who is the toolkit for?

The Smart Toolkit is aimed primarily at information practitioners in development organisations, particularly those working at grassroots level, who are involved in planning and managing information-related projects and generating new knowledge and key lessons from them. Many of these people would readily acknowledge that not only are they ‘non-experts’ in evaluation, but also that they lack the basics in how to evaluate information-related projects.

The field of information and communication management (ICM) has become central to much development thinking, boosted by the huge growth in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in recent years and the potential that ICTs have for development. But there is a noticeable gap in the literature when it comes to identifying evaluation methods and tools that can be applied specifically and successfully to information-related projects.The toolkit seeks to fill this gap to some extent and to encourage practitioners to contribute to this effort.

The toolkit should also prove useful for development project managers in general, as well as for funding agencies and other stakeholders in the production and delivery of information products and services.

Who should read this book, and why

• Are you managing an information project, product or service, such as a library, newsletter, rural radio, training workshop or website?
• Do you prepare information products and services for the wider public?
• Are you in the business of disseminating information?
• Are you an evaluator who has been challenged to evaluate information projects, products or services?
• Do you ever wonder what more you could be doing to meet the needs of your target groups, and whether or not you’re providing them with the ‘right’ information?
• Have you ever wondered:

-why your researchers and scientists don’t have access to up-to-date credible information?
-why many of the reports prepared by government ministries and research institutions never find their way to the libraries?
-how you could get more people to use your information services?
-why your website doesn’t provide the information it should?
-why you can’t find the information when you need it?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to some of these questions, then this toolkit is for you.”

(from New York Times, found by Aldo Benini)

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — The Trixie Telemetry company believes in hard, quantifiable truths. It believes that there is a right time and wrong time to breast-feed a baby. It believes that certain hours and rooms are better for a child’s naps than others and that data can establish this, too. It believes that parents should track how long their infants have gone without soiling a diaper and devote themselves to beating this “high score.”

To these ends, the company sells what is a coveted service in this age: a dashboard. It invites you to enter data on your baby’s life, and it produces color-coded charts, Sleep Probability Distributions, digestive analysis and such, to help parents make data-based decisions.

Don’t laugh, because Trixie Telemetry is made from the essence of our age… >read the rest of the article on the NYT website here<

[Via ELDIS blog] The Nepali Community Radio Support Centre (CRSC) has launched a new manual entitled Community Radio Performance Assessment System. UNESCO is calling it the “most comprehensive set of indicators concerning community media is the result of a decade-long work of CRSC in promoting, enabling and facilitating the community radio movement in Nepal.”

Like many other developing countries with forbidding landscapes and isolated communities, radio is to be the most effective way of communication in Nepal, where the majority of population lives in villages and the half of it cannot read and write. UNESCO says, “the Nepal experience of community radio is fascinating, inspiring and full of lessons to be learned. But the huge proliferation of community radios there urgently requires well-considered benchmarks and criteria. The new CRSC manual is a major contribution to the development of community media not just in Nepal but more widely in South Asia and internationally.”

Community Radio Performance Assessment System draws from both the grassroots experience of community media and from international broadcast practices. It considers the issues that are the real basis for the success of community media: public accountability, community representation, locally relevant programming, diverse funding and acknowledgement of staff, including volunteers. It covers in details many key success factors, such as participation and ownership, content, management, volunteerism and networking; it can be applied across a wide range of contexts, from policy issues to the assessment of a local station.

CRSC was established by the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) in 2000.

Date: 21 May 2009
Venue: London

This exciting new conference is the first time charities will have the chance to meet a range of system providers offering resources that help with outcomes monitoring.

The conference will help you:
· learn how IT can help you track the difference you make, save time and cut costs
· understand more about the processes involved in implementing an outcomes-based IT system
· gain an overview of the range of solutions available
· identify specific IT systems that will help you measure the outcomes of your work.

M&E and ICT experts will be on hand throughout the day and a diverse range of system providers will exhibit:

Tmwk Limited, Substance, Lamplight Database Systems Limited, ITsorted, The Gallery Partnership Limited, The Tool Factory, Dizions Limited, Triangle Consulting/, Homeless Link, Social Solutions Inc, Suffolk ACRE

Prices start from £85 and delegates will also be offered a discount on CES publications and training.

Delegate places are limited. To book please visit our website at www.outcomesandit.org.uk or contact shafiq@ces-vol.org.uk

Shafiq Meghani
Performance Consultant
National Performance Programme
Charities Evaluation Services
4 Coldbath Square
London EC1R 5HL

Tel: 020 7713 5722
Fax: 020 7713 5692
Direct line: 020 7078 9393
Email: shafiq@ces-vol.org.uk
Website: http://www.performancemanagement.org.uk

Charities Evaluation Services (CES) is the UK’s leading provider of training, consultancy and information on evaluation and quality systems in the third sector. We also publish PQASSO, the most widely used quality system in the sector.

CES is an independent charity. We work with third sector organisations and their funders.