Category: Types of Events

Impact Evaluation Conference: “Mind the Gap”: From Evidence to Impact

Date: June 15-17 2011
Venue: Cuernavaca, Mexico

Each year billions of dollars are spent on tackling global poverty. Development programs and policies are designed to build sustainable livelihoods and improve lives. But is there real evidence to show which programs work and why? Are government and donor policies based on concrete and credible evidence?

The Mind the Gap conference on impact evaluation will address these questions and offer possible solutions. With a focus on Latin American Countries the conference will take place in Cuernavaca, Mexico, June 15-17, 2011. Co-hosted by The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Center for Labor and Social Distributive Studies in coordination with the Impact Evaluation Network and the Poverty and Economic Policy Network (CEDLAS-IEN-PEP).

This conference will provide a platform to share and discuss experiences on how to best achieve evidence-based policy in sectors that are highly relevant for Latin America. To this end, the conference will mainstream a policy-focus into all its activities. The plenary sessions will address the challenges and progress made in building evidence into policy-making processes. The sector-focused sessions will be asked to address the engagement of stakeholders and policy-makers in the various studies presented. The conference will be preceded by a range of pre-conference clinics tailored to the interests and needs of both researchers and program managers.

The conference will accommodate only 400 attendees. The official languages of the Conference are Spanish and English. Simultaneous translation will be provided for all conference sessions.Please register early to secure your attendance. Registration will open March 1st. 2011. Early bird rates will be offered.

Check the conference website often for up to date conference information.  http://www.impactevaluation2011.org/

Bursaries are being made available to developing country participants with a proven interest in impact evaluation.

Bursary applications will open March 1st giving preference to authors of accepted abstracts.

Expert seminar with Dr MQ Patton ‘Developmental evaluation’

Date: 29th March 2011
Venue: in the Netherlands

NOW CANCELLED. Further information will be provided when available

With pleasure we would like to announce an expert seminar with Dr. Michael Quinn Patton on ‘Developmental evaluation – new kid on the evaluation block’.

Developmental evaluation is based on insights from complex dynamic systems, uncertainty, nonlinearity, and emergence. World renowned, award-winning evaluation expert Dr. Michael Quinn Patton will discuss the developmental evaluation framework as detailed in his book `Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use’. Patton will illustrate how developmental evaluation can be used for a range of purposes: ongoing program development; adapting effective principles of practice to local contexts; generating innovations and taking them to scale; and facilitating rapid response in crisis situations.

Participant discussions will focus on development evaluation’s value for the development sector. How is developmental evaluation different from existing practice, ongoing reflective monitoring – in development? What new insights can help strengthen the utility of evaluation for development?

During the morning, Dr. Patton will explain developmental evaluation and illustrate it with many examples from his own experience. In the afternoon, participants will debate the practical application of developmental evaluation in development, based on participants’ existing evaluation questions.

For those interested and not to far away around that time, please do come and join this interesting event!

For more info and registration: http://www.cdi.wur.nl/UK/newsagenda/agenda/DevelopmentalEvaluation_MichaelPatton
We suggest to make an early hotel booking (http://www.hofvanwageningen.nl/?language=en) as the hotel is already quite full. Also indicate to the hotel that you are booking a room for the ‘expert seminar with Patton’.

Looking forward to meeting you here!

Cecile Kusters (CDI), Irene Guijt (Learning by Design), Jan Brouwers (Context, international cooperation) and Karel Chambille (Hivos)
Kind regards / Hartelijke groeten,

Cecile Kusters
Participatory Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation – Managing for Impact
Multi-Stakeholder Processes and Social Learning
Centre for Development Innovation
Wageningen UR
P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Tel. +31 (0)317 481407 (direct), +31 (0)317 486800 (reception)
Fax +31 (0)317 486801
e-mail cecile.kusters@wur.nl
www.cdi.wur.nl
PPME resource portal: http://portals.wi.wur.nl/ppme/
MSP resource portal: http://portals.wi.wur.nl/msp/
www.disclaimer-uk.wur.nl

Results, risk assessment and management in development cooperation – Towards a Common Approach

Date: 25 – 26 November 2010
Venue: Nordatlantens Brygge, Strandgade 91, Copenhagen

(From ODI website)

“The conference is organised by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and co-hosted by The Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute and the OECD/DAC International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF).

Development cooperation is political in nature. This is particularly true in high-risk environments, where engagement impacts the behaviours, priorities, influence and power of different groups. High-risk environments could provide tremendous opportunities to deliver positive results, as long as international actors are prepared to take informed political and programmatic risks to facilitate the necessary change. However, current approaches are not always appropriate given the nature of the contexts concerned. There is also a difference between situations of fragility, humanitarian crises, or in other development contexts. Hence, risk analysis needs to take into account the specificities of each situation.

The international community lacks a concerted and agreed upon way to manage and mitigate risks. This conference will take stock on where we are now and what could be the path forward, and come up with a set of practical recommendations.

At the conference, key note speakers representing prominent international actors will discuss how they deal with risk and results management and participants will be provided with an opportunity to discuss lessons learnt from different country contexts in a set of work-shops and, looking ahead, suggest practical recommendations for follow up.

For further information regarding the conference, please click here.

To register please send your contact details to: riskconf@um.dk.  Please indicate which of the three working groups you would like to participate in. Deadline for registration is November 5, 2010.”

Seminar: Complexity-oriented Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME): from alternative to mainstream?

Date: Wednesday 10 November 2010, 13.30-17.00 pm,
Venue: Theatre Concordia, Hoge Zand 42, The Hague, The Netherlands

The HIVA Research Institute for Work and Society of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, PSO Capacity Building in Developing Countries, the Flemish Office for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB), and Vredeseilanden/VECO invite you to a seminar organised within the framework of the Development Policy Review Network (DPRN) to discuss how alternative PME approaches such as Outcome Mapping and Most Significant Change may complement the mainstream Logical Framework approach for complex development programmes. The aim is to come up with recommendations for PME policies, based on lessons learned from practical experience with various PME approaches in complex situations.

The seminar forms the closing part of the DPRN ‘Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in complex social situations’ process, in which the four organisations have worked on various studies about these PME approaches. They analysed the different PME approaches in detail and carried out various case studies of PME approaches which featured as learning histories for various organisations. In addition, the organisers reviewed current PME policy frameworks in Belgium and the Netherlands and organised a public online discussion about the use of Logical Framework versus Outcome Mapping. The insights of these four projects will be shared and discussed at the seminar. For more details see the attached invitation or contact Jan van Ongevalle of HIVA at Jan.VanOngevalle@hiva.kuleuven.be (Jan.VanOngevalle@hiva.kuleuven.be). More information on the process can be found on the website http://pme.global-connections.nl/.

You can register by sending an email to aanmelding@pso.nl (aanmelding@pso.nl) before 1 November, mentioning ‘DPRN seminar 10 November’

Conference: Making the Invisible Visible: An Emerging Community of Practice in Indicators, Sustainability and Values

Date: December 16-18, 2010
Venue: University of Brighton, UK

The University of Brighton will be hosting a groundbreaking, EU funded, international conference on the theme of Making the Invisible Visible: An Emerging Community of Practice in Indicators, Sustainability and Values, bringing together the leading thinkers, practitioners and organizations in these fields.  The conference will also showcase a pioneering €1million EU funded project to trial values-based indicators at the project (see www.wevalue.org), which has demonstrated its value as a tool to measure in a non-reductionist, yet rigorous way, the values dimension of civil society activity, and offers a model of good practice in  civil society-university collaborations.

Among the speakers due to address the conference are global experts in economics, such as Augusto Lopez-Claros (former Chief Economist and Director of the the Global Competitveness Report at the World Economic Forum, and developer of the Humanitarian Response Index); leading environmentalists such as Arthur Dahl (President of the International Environment Forum, former Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and former coordinator of the UN System-Wide Earthwatch) and Professor Arjen Wals (UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development and world expert on environmental education); parliamentarians  such as Professor Bedrich Moldan (Senator in the Parliament of the Czech Republic and a global authority on indicators for sustainable development); civil society organizations as diverse as the International Red Cross, Earth Charter International, the Alliance for Religions and Conservation (ARC, among others; world experts on values in business across the world, such as Richard Barrett (leadership expert mapping values among some 2000 organizations and 3000 leaders in over 40 countries); and many more.

Attendance is free, and there are still possibilities to contribute with a presentation and/or a workshop on the connection between values, sustainability and the challenges of evaluation in your work.

To register at the conference please go to: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sdecu/research/esdinds/conference/index.html

INTRAC workshop: Accountability without Impact?

Date: Date: 23 November 2010
Venue: Venue: St Anne’s College, Oxford, UK

There are many debates about the ‘So what?’ question, in terms of concerns about the actual impact of international cooperation. What is the development sector actually achieving in terms of improving the lives of the poor? Have we focused on proving accountability without truly pursuing ways to assess impact? What can we do about this?

This workshop will draw on practitioner experiences to assess the state of the current debate, asking where we are now; explore forward-thinking case studies; and facilitate productive discussion and debate about where we want to be, and how to move towards that. The workshop will be attended by senior INGO managers and policy makers, from Europe.

For further information click here http://www.intrac.org/pages/en/most-recent-event.html . Contact: zwilkinson@intrac.org

DfID Seeks Suggestions for Implementing Aid Transparency Initiative

on Devex, By Eliza Villarino on 06 September 2010

“The U.K. Department for International Development launches an online discussion to seek input on how it should implement the UKaid Transparency Guarantee.

The U.K. Department for International Development has opened an online discussion to help it decide how to implement its aid transparency initiative.

The UKaid Transparency Guarantee forms part of the coalition government’s commitment to boost the transparency of DfID aid. As reported by Devex, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell announced the guarantee, along with the intention to create an independent aid watchdog, in June.

DfID is urging civil society groups, think tanks and other organizations working on transparency to send an e-mail to aidtransparency@dfid.gov.uk if they wish to contribute to the discussion.”

PS – 19th October 2010: A summary of the online discussion is now available here as a pdf: 2010 Summary of Huddle Discussions on UKATG

Conference: Systemic Approaches in Evaluation

Date: January 25th/ 26th 2011
Venue: Eschborn, Germany

Call for Papers & Save the Date

Development programs promote complex reforms and change processes. Today, such processes are characterized more than ever by insecurity and unpredictability, posing a big challenge to the evaluation of development projects. In order to understand which projects work, why and under which conditions, evaluations need to embrace the interaction of various influencing factors and the multi-dimensionality of societal change. However, present evaluation approaches often premise predictability and linearity of event chains. They reflect the natural human need for security but are often not suitable to comprehend complex situations.

In order to fill this gap systemic approaches in evaluation of development programs are increasingly being discussed. A key concept is interdependency instead of linear cause-effect-relations. Systemic evaluations look at interrelations instead of analyzing isolated facts and figures. They focus on the interaction between various stakeholders with different motivations, interests, perceptions, and perspectives.

On January 25th and 26th, the Evaluation Unit of GTZ offers a forum to discuss systemic approaches to evaluation on an international conference with participants from politics, science and practice. On the basis of presentations, discussion rounds and case studies we will tackle, amongst others, the following questions:

·         What characterizes a “systemic evaluation“?
·         What is new about systemic evaluations, what makes them different from other (e.g.  participatory) approaches?
·         For which kind of evaluations are systemic approaches (not) useful?
·         Which concrete methods and tools from systemic consulting can be used?
·         Which quality standards do systemic evaluations have to meet?
·         Which specific methods and tools from systemic consultation practice can be used in systemic evaluation?

We welcome contributions on good practice examples and/or systemic tools for evaluation. Please submit your proposals (1000 words maximum) in English by October 31st to Sabine Dinges (sabine.dinges@gtz.de).

We look forward to receiving your abstracts. Further information on the registration process will soon be provided.

Martina Vahlhaus, Head of Evaluation Unit ,
Michael Gajo ,  Senior Evaluation Officer
gtz German Technical Cooperation
P.O. 5180
65726 Eschborn

Measuring Results for Dutch Development Aid, Approaches and Future Directions

Date: October 4-7, 2010
Venue: Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam,

The International Institute of Social Studies and The Amsterdam Institute for International Development invite applications / submissions for a training and conference event on Measuring Results for Dutch Development Aid, Approaches and Future Directions with financial support from the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation.

Participation is free of charge, but places are limited.
Deadline for applications: September 10, 2010
Click here to apply

Objectives: Share results from and experiences with impact evaluation in developing countries, and discuss their relevance for Dutch development cooperation.

Target Audiences: Researchers, NGOs, consulting companies and policy makers in the Netherlands conducting or using impact evaluation to study the effectiveness of development assistance.

Confirmed speakers: Dr. Howard White, director of International Initiative for Impact Evaluation(3ie).
Dr. Paul Gertler, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Sulley Gariba, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Alternatives, Ghana.
Prof. Ruerd Ruben, director of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation (starting Sept 1).

Submit a paper (optional): Contributed papers are sought in the area of (1) completed impact evaluations, (2) reviews of impact evaluations on a particular sector, (3) position papers on approaches to impact evaluations in relation to decision making.

Selection criteria: Quality of submission and/or professional link with result assessment for development assistance and/or participation in the impact evaluation training.

Maximum number of participants: 100

PROGRAM »

UK Evaluation Society 2010 Annual Evaluation Conference

Evaluation in a turbulent world: Challenges, opportunities and innovation in evaluation practice
Date: 22-23 November 2010
Venue: Macdonald Burlington Hotel, Birmingham

Abstracts are now invited for this year’s UKES Annual Evaluation Conference. The on-line submission form is available via the conference website www.profbriefings.co.uk/ukes2010 The closing date for receipt of submissions is 13 August 2010.

With the effects of the financial crisis still being felt, and with a new coalition government in Number 10, many evaluators find themselves operating in a very different policy environment. In particular the rhetoric has changed from tackling the crisis (a central theme of last year’s conference looking at impact) to talk of austerity and cutting back the public sector, a major source of sponsorship for evaluation. While this environment offers tough challenges, it also presents opportunities – in particular in the development and promotion of new evaluation methodologies, relationships and approaches. More than ever there will be a need to assess what is of value, what has quality and in what circumstances evaluation can contribute to informed policy-making and debate. Continue reading “UK Evaluation Society 2010 Annual Evaluation Conference”

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