A news service focusing on developments in monitoring and evaluation methods relevant to development programmes with social development objectives. Managed by Rick Davies, since 1997
If you know of others, please leave a comment below
By Douglas Horton, Consultant, Gordon Prain, International Potato Center,
Graham Thiele, International Potato Center, November 2009. 101 pages
Hard copy available via the IPC website
Abstract
This paper reports on a wide-ranging review of the literature on partnerships and other closely related forms of collaboration. It aims to contribute to knowledge of the actual and potential roles of partnership in international agricultural research for development.
The paper summarizes conclusions and insights from four distinct professional literatures: research studies; professional evaluation literature; practitioner-oriented reviews, guidelines and assessment tools; and CGIAR-related reviews, evaluations and policy documents. It identifies and analyzes key cross-cutting themes and success factors, highlights gaps in current knowledge, and identifies high-potential areas for further study. A wide range of research-based publications is reviewed, including studies in such fields as management and organizational development, public administration, economics and international development. Work in these fields covers such diverse topics as the role of inter-organizational collaboration in strategic management, public–private and cross-sector partnerships, North–South partnerships, roles of partnership in linking research with action, networking and transactions costs.
The different literatures talk little to each other and are highly self-referential. Nevertheless, some common patterns, themes and concerns emerge related to definitions, partnership drivers and dynamics, trust and mutuality, power asymmetries and inequities, and success factors.
It is noteworthy that empirical studies of partnerships are rare, particularly in-depth case studies. Theoretical pieces seldom present empirical tests of hypotheses, and practical guidelines are seldom grounded in theory. There is a clear need for more systematic and in-depth empirical research on partnership experiences.
Although partnership is now considered an essential way of working in many fields, several authors caution that the costs of working in partnership may often exceed the benefits. Before establishing a partnership, one should identify a clear value-added proposition.
Many reports on partnership prepared for the CGIAR are available only in grey literature, leading to difficulties in accessing them and risking a loss of knowledge. Gaps in knowledge are identified at the level of individual partnerships, the level of the organizations that participate in or manage portfolios of partnerships, and the level of research or innovation domains that are characterized by networks of partnerships.
(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<
Date: 7th – 11th June 2010
Venue: Londonderry, Northern Ireland
As part of its 11th International Summer School, INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute) will be running a course on Evaluation in Conflict Prone Settings.
The course covers the basics of conducting evaluations of initiatives in conflict-prone settings. The focus of the course is not limited to peacebuilding initiatives, but applies to the evaluation of the full spectrum of initiatives: development, humanitarian, private sectors, community development, and so on. Similarly, the term “conflict-prone” is broadly defined in the course. It can be applied to community work on interface areas of inner-cities, or it can be applied to more conventional, protracted, militarized conflicts. The course will be facilitated by Dr Kenneth Bush (INCORE) and Colleen Duggan (IDRC).
The 2010 International Summer School will run from 7th-11th June. The Summer School will be based on the historic Magee Campus in the city of Derry/Londonderry, on the shores of Lough Foyle in the north west of Northern Ireland, easily accessible by road, rail and air.
Previous participants of the INCORE Summer School have included USAID, European Union DG External Relations, UK Department for International Development, World Food Programme, UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and others. The INCORE Summer School is recognised by UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) Programme of Correspondence Instruction in Peacekeeping Operations, and may form part of The Certificate-of-Training In Peace Support Operations (COTIPSO) Programme.
Visit www.unitarpoci.org for further details.
FOR MORE DETAILS
Visit: http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/courses/ss/
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: school@incore.ulst.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 28 7137 5500 Fax: +44 (0) 28 7137 5510 INCORE, University of Ulster, Aberfoyle House, Northland Road, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, BT48 7JL
From the ActionAid website
“Systematization is the reconstruction of and analytical reflection about an experience. Through systematization, events are interpreted in order to understand them… The systematization allows for the experience to be discussed and compared with other similar experiences, and with existing theories and, thus, contributes to an accumulation of knowledge produced from and for practice” (Systematization Permanent Workshop in AAI systematization resource pack, pg 10, 2009).
“The second resource is Advocacy for Change, a systematization of advocacy experiences related to the status of youth (in Guatemala), the right to education (in Brazil) and farming (in the United States). The systematizations allowed the actors involved to consider the evolution of the experiences and to identify lessons and insights for future interventions. The Guatemala systematization product was documented in writing and film, the US experience in writing, and the Brazil experience in film”
Tracking Progress in Advocacy – Why and How to Monitor and Evaluate Advocacy Projects and Programmes looks at the scope of, and rational for, engaging in advocacy work as part of development interventions, then focuses on the monitoring and evaluating of these efforts – offering reasons why and when these processes should be planned and implemented, what’s involved, and who should be engaged in the process. By Janice Griffen, Dec, 2009
The Challenges of Monitoring and Evaluating Programmes offers some clarity in understanding the different uses of the term ‘programme’, and uses the different types of programme to demonstrate the issues that arise for M&E. By Janice Griffen, Dec, 2009
(email from Pathfinder) Hi Rick. We recently published a new resource for the advocacy evaluation field. Our new guide, Pathfinder : A Practical Guide to Advocacy Evaluation, comes in three editions-one each for advocates, evaluators, and funders. All three editions, plus a bibliography of useful resources, are free to download and share from our website:
Pathfinder provides a “big picture” view for planning and conducting an advocacy evaluation. Drawn from Innovation Network’s research and consulting experience, the guide encourages the adoption of a “learning-focused evaluation” approach, which prioritizes using knowledge for improvement.
In early 2009 five international development NGOs participated in reflection and discussion as part of a research project called ‘How wide are the ripples?’. The aim was to explore the flow and influence of knowledge produced in grassroots participatory processes within the international NGOs which commissioned or initiated process. This work was supported within a wider research programme called IKM Emergent, which aims to explore how knowledge is used in development, and specifically to promote the recognition and use of ‘Southern knowledge’. In addition to working with the five participating organisations Hannah Beardon and Kate Newman (independent consultants commissioned by IKM to conduct the research) linked to a wide variety of people who reflected on the questions and shared innovative approaches, which contributed to the learning.
The research, which included a background literature review, identified the context in which INGOs are operating and some inherent obstacles to bottom-up knowledge flow in international organisations. It also documented examples of how organisations have tried to deal with these blocks, and promote the flow of information from the grassroots to contribute to the organisational understanding of, and response to, development issues. For example:
The review, case studies and report are available here: http://wiki.ikmemergent.net/index.php/Workspaces:5._Participation
Card / pile sorting is a simple and useful means of eliciting and aggregating qualitative data, in a participatory manner. In anthropology, it is described as pile sorting, and is used for domain analysis, in the field of cognitive anthropology. In website design it is known as card sorting.
A new website, launched in December 2009
What is Public Online Monitoring
Public Online Monitoring is an approach to bring development projects into the public realm. Public Online Monitoring improves access to project information and to facilitate communication among project stakeholders using an online platform.
OpenAid is a German NGO based in Hannover created in order to make Public Online Monitoring reality.
Public Online Monitoring has four key elements:
1) Detailed information about individual development projects, online, easy to find and easy to understand. This element is the realm of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), of the AidDATA project and of donors. OpenAid lobbies for more transparent aid information in German aid agencies.
2) Sector specific online guidance for civil society stakeholders on issues critical to monitoring (e.g. common sector specific forms of corruption).This guidance should support non-experts to ask critical questions and encourage stakeholders to monitor projects in their home area.
3) An online forum for stakeholders to meet, to exchange information, to voice concerns, to defend interests, to discuss policy. Such a forum can should involve local project management, donors, local government and politicians, local media representatives, local NGOs and citizens. It can also involve interested citizens from other countries, development experts and taxpayers in donor countries.
4) Linking up the online forum to people without access to the internet through an involvement of local radio stations and newspapers, creative use of mobile phones and through local NGO activities.