Community Radio Performance Assessment System.

[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.

BOND Quality Group meeting: Managing partnerships

Date: 8 October, Time: 13.30 to 17.00
Venue: VSO International, Carlton House, 27A Carlton Drive, Putney SW15 2BS, London, UK

Topic: Managing Partnerships: what does it mean for quality and effectiveness?

Many INGOs operate in partnership with national and local NGOs. The tools we use to manage these relationships have a major effect on everyone involved, and the effectiveness, quality and relevance of our work. This session will offer an opportunity to engage with two initiatives which focus on making these relationships work better.

  • Tracey Martin will present the Barefoot Collective’s approach to supporting organisations to develop their potential to bring about change.
  • Natalia Kiryttopoulou will share Keystone Accountability’s feedback surveys which help organisations understand how partners perceive their work.

These approaches present exciting challenges to the way that we manage performance and measure results with partners. Come along to join the discussion!

This is an open event, for BOND members and others. Please pass this invitation on to others who may be interested.

BOND members can reserve their place online at http://groups.bond.org.uk Click on the ‘Quality Group’ then ‘Meetings’.

Non- members should send an email Ivan Kent at ikent@cafod.org.uk .

Follow the links below to find out more about these presentations:

New Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results

We are pleased to inform you that the new Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results was launched by the Administrator on September 15th, 2009. The Evaluation Office, the Operations Support Group, and the Capacity Development Group of the Bureau for Development Policy collaborated in revising the publication. Please click here to view the video clip of the launch, which was followed by a conversation between the Administrator and Mr. Bruno Pouezat, Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, on the importance of managing for development results in UNDP.
This Handbook is different from previous versions.  Recognizing the importance of integrating results-based management at the design stage, this version includes a section on planning. As the Administrator emphasizes in her letter, working consciously towards results requires systematic planning, monitoring and evaluation. The Handbook is also intended to help you support national capacities in these areas in close collaboration with national counterparts and institutions.

You will soon receive printed copies of the Handbook in English, Spanish and/or French. You can also access the online version of the Handbook at www.undp.org/eo/handbook.

We hope that UNDP will find this publication useful in its effort to be a more effective partner for development.

Best regards,

Saraswathi Menon, Director, Office of Evaluation |Judith Karl, Director, Operations Support Group, Executive Office |Kanni  Wignaraja, Director, Capacity Development Group, Bureau for Development Policy |

Evaluation in the UK third sector: current issues, future challenges

Workshop Date: Thursday 8th October 2009 Time: 12.30pm to 4.30pm
Venue: Toynbee Hall, Aldgate, London

Twenty years ago, evaluation in the third sector was limited. There was very little support for third sector organisations wishing to evaluate their work, and self-evaluation was treated with suspicion by many. The situation in 2009 is somewhat different. Many third sector organisations routinely self evaluate and a number commission external evaluations. Although the prime motivators are still accountability and meeting the demands of funders and commissioners, many report the benefits of monitoring and evaluation for learning and decision making.

This timely event will enable presenters and participants to share their knowledge of existing evaluation practices in the UK third sector, and to explore some of the challenges facing us in the future. It aims to build networks of UK third sector evaluators (both self evaluators and external evaluators).
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Six courses on program evaluation topics

Date: October 19 – 24, 2009
Venue: Ottawa, Canada

Registration Deadline – October 1 Classes are filling up — so call us to hold space for you

TEI and CES Collaborative Program

This October, 2009, the Canadian Evaluation Society, National Capital Chapter (CES-NCC) and The Evaluators’ Institute (TEI) will continue their collaboration to bring six courses on program evaluation topics to Canadian evaluators.
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trainings in Evaluation of Humanitarian Action

Date: 9-11 November 2009
Venue: Brussels

9-11 November 2009 (introductory- to intermediate level) & 12-13 November 2009 (advanced level)

Evaluation of Humanitarian Action with ALNAP (Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action)

9-11 November 2009

This course is an introductory-to- intermediate level course and has the overall aim of making evaluations of humanitarian action more effective in contributing to the improved performance of interventions and to improve the quality of the evaluation process. This 3-day training course is based on an update of the ALNAP training modules. The course will also introduce some new material, specifically:
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5-day Outcome Mapping Training and Workshop in Switzerland

Date:  26 – 30 October 2009
Venue:  Filzbach GL near Zurich, Switzerland

Agridea International is organising a training and workshop on Outcome Mapping in English language in Europe. Interested people working in development cooperation in southern and eastern countries as well as staff working in development and donor agencies in the North are invited to register. Besides an intensive introduction in OM as a tool for Project Cycle Management, the course has the objective to practise OM tools on the basis of own cases brought by the participants, and to combine OM tools with other M&E approaches.

For further information or registration contact Mr. Carsten Schulz
email: carsten.schulz@agridea.ch

website : www.agridea-international.ch/training

“Text Analysis under Time Pressure. Tools for humanitarian and development workers”

By Aldo Benini

“The purpose of this paper is to add simple productivity tools for text analysis, by publicizing existing ones and by adding one that I created. “Simple” is a relative term. As the diagram in the Summary section suggests, the suitability of the tools depends on the skills and equipment level of the intending user. Also, I assume a kind of working environment that developing country organizations will not everywhere offer for computer-supported text analysis: that the analyst actually can acquire the documents digitally.
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Online workshop: Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation

Date: 1st October and 1st of the month thereafter
Venue: Online at http://pcmitraining.com/course/category.php?id=2

Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation is a four week interactive e-learning workshop for individuals who are new to the field of monitoring and evaluation or those who wish to formalise their existing understanding which has been developed through work based experience. The course considers important concepts and activities from inception through to outcome evaluation and additionally includes valuable project management and leadership techniques. The course is accredited and requires approximately 7.5 hours participant input per week, including assignments, and is priced at £750. The course runs once a month, starting on the 1st of each month. For further information and to enrol, visit:http://pcmitraining.com/course/category.php?id=2

Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Programmes University of Pretoria

Date: 28 Sep, 2009 to 16 Oct, 2009
Venue: University of Pretoria, Hatfield

Full Details:
This course introduces delegates to the monitoring and evaluation of health programmes, the improvement and institutionalisation of the collection of health related data and the analysis of programme planning and perfomance.

The main topics covered include the development of monitoring and evaluation programmes for population, health and nutrition interventions (HIV/AIDS, STDs, TB, family planning an dreproductive health).

Cost per Delegate: R16500

For more information, please visit http://www.ceatup.co.za or contact Thabang from Continuing Education at the University of Pretoria on telephone 0124205010 or email thabang.ce@up.ac.za.