Meeting of the London UKES Regional Network

Evaluation in the European Commission

What does Europe have to offer us?

Is the evaluation experience of the European Commission relevant?

7th May 2008

2.00pm to 4.30pm (Registration from 1.30 pm)

Financial Services Authority, Canary Wharf

Book now – places limited!

UK evaluators sometimes view evaluation undertaken in continental Europe as irrelevant to their work. Yet, they may be surprised to find a wealth of experience and tools generated by the European Commission that is highly pertinent to the everyday commissioning and undertaking of evaluations here in the UK.

The London Network invites you to take part in a unique session that will provide you with a privileged perspective into the world of European Commission evaluation. You will discover not only that the Commission evaluates all policies and programmes that it funds, but also that programme managers are tasked to provide a written response, in the form of a “fiche contradictoire” to explain why recommendations from an evaluation will or will not be implemented. Could this be a viable solution to the frequent burial of evaluation results in the UK?

To explore Europe’s approach to evaluation, we will hear from Evaluation Officer Neville Reeve from the Directorate General for Research on his practical experience of putting evaluation findings into practice. We will also learn about the resources offered by the Commission to help European evaluators achieve evaluation excellence: Elliot Stern, Editor of the Journal Evaluation (who will also chair the session) will introduce the on-line ‘EVALSED’ Guide to evaluation for social & economic development programmes. Ample time will be devoted to discussion and informal networking.

Registration is at 1.30 pm. The session starts promptly at 2 pm and lasts till 4.30 pm Refreshments available at registration and after 4.30 pm. This event is free to UKES members. A charge of £23.50 for non-UKES members is payable in advance. Registration form.

[1] The UKES Regional network would like to thank Matrix Knowledge Group for organising speakers and the Financial Service Authority for providing a venue for the event.

Checklist designed to guide evaluations of sustainability

(from Xceval email list)
Dear members of the XCeval list:

I would like to remind you of an opportunity to provide feedback on a
checklist designed to guide evaluations of sustainability for
sustainability. Many of you have already expressed an interest or
provided feedback.

Your knowledge, expertise, and experience is highly valuable for
improving the checklist to assure that it is complete, correct, and
useful.

The checklist has been developed based on a literature review and
provides guidance for general evaluation tasks as well as criteria of
specific relevance to sustainability. Specifically, it distinguishes
between evaluation OF sustainability (i.e., How well an evaluation
object is being sustained?) and evaluation FOR sustainability (i.e., How
well does an evaluation object address the larger concerns faced within
sustainable development?).

If you agree to participate, I will provide you with the checklist and
a survey that asks questions about the checklist and about your
professional background. In addition to the time required to read the
checklist, the survey will take approximately 20 minutes of your time.
The survey will be open until May 5, 2008. Your responses will be
treated confidentially. If you know of any person who may be interested
in this project and who is not on this listserv, please forward this
e-mail respectively.

If you are interested in participating in the study and willing to
volunteer some of your valuable time for providing critical feedback on
the checklist, please reply favorably to my personal e-mail address:
Daniela.Schroeter@gmail.com. I will respond to you with a copy of the
checklist and the survey. Please indicate if you prefer taking the
survey via a web-based link or a word document in which you can save
your answers.

If you decide to participate, you will receive a synthesis of the
responses to the survey as well as the improved checklist for use in
your organization.

Best wishes,

Daniela

Daniela C. Schroeter
PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Evaluation
Western Michigan University Evaluation Center
http://evaluation.wmich.edu/phd/
Associate Editor of the Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation
Office: 269-387-5895
Skype ID: daniela.schroeter

Training: Evaluating the quality of humanitarian projects

Training course – ‘Evaluating the Quality of humanitarian projects’, postponed to 19-23 May 2008, Plaisians, France
This 5-day course will take place in the training centre at Groupe URD’s headquarters. The course looks at evaluation (definition, phases, types…) with regard to the Quality of humanitarian action.
It is organised around a full case study based on real experiences in the field.
The course is aimed at Programme managers, Project managers, M&E managers, evaluators and all other positions in the humanitarian sector involved in project management.
Language : French.
Registration form
Contact

UKES Annual Conference 2008, October 2008

Date: 23-24 October 2008
Venue: The Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel

Changing Contexts for Evaluation and Professional Action

UKES Annual Conference 2008

23-24 October 2008

The Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel


Call for abstracts

The UKES Annual Conference 2008 will be held on 23-24 October at the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel, preceded on 22 October by a programme of Training and Professional Development Workshops.

The closing date for call for abstracts is 23 May 2008.

Conference website

The European Evaluation Society Conference, Lisbon 2008

Date: 1-3 October 2008
Venue: Lisbon, Portugal

‘Building for the future: Evaluation in governance, development and progress’

Programme

The conference will comprise keynote speakers, plenary and parallel sessions, networking opportunities and social events.

The main programme will commence at 19.00 on Wednesday 1 October and close with a reception at 18.00 on Friday 3 October.

The conference will be preceded by a programme of Pre-Conference Training and Professional Development Workshops commencing on Tuesday Morning 30 September and closing at 16.30 hrs on Wednesday 1 October (4 half day sessions). Read more about how you can contribute to these sessions.

The programme will include the following keynote presentations:

Development Evaluation at a Crossroads?
Niels Dabelstein, Evaluation of the Paris Declaration, Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark

Evaluation and policy implementation in multi-level governance.
Nicoletta Stame, Professor of Social Policy, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Italy

Evaluating drug policies in the European Union: current situation and future directions
Dra. Maria Moreira, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Portugal

Making evaluation more useful for determining development effectiveness
Dr Vinod Thomas, Director-General, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), World Bank Group, Washington DC, USA

Parallel Sessions

We received over 350 abstracts from participants from 49 countries world-wide. These submissions will be presented in themed parallel sessions of papers, symposia, roundtables, panel/debates, posters and other innovative formats. A full programme will be available well in advance of the conference from this website.

Parallel sessions will be grouped under the following strands:
1. Methodological choices and approaches
2. Ethical practice, evaluation standards and professional development
3. Evaluation and its role in policy implementation and programme intervention
4. Evaluation and building informal social capital
5. International evaluation and evaluation in developing countries
6. Evaluation and organisational development
7. Encouraging evaluation use

The May 2008 Edinburgh Evaluation Summer School

Date: May 26th – 28th
Venue: University of Edinburgh, Scotland

(from Eval-Sys email list)

Dear Colleagues

The Edinburgh Evaluation Summer School
(http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/ruhbc/evaluation/summerschool2008) is now in
its 3rd year; the prior summer schools have attracted interest from
evaluators and planners from all disciplines. As in prior years, the Summer
School faculty will include world class evaluation scholars and practitioners. As
well as providing a platform of learning from world class evaluation scholars
and practitioners, the Summer School also fosters a community of learning
and gives participants a platform to raise questions and discuss topics
relevant to evaluation.

The Edinburgh Evaluation Summer School will this year take place on the
following dates:

May 19th – 21st: Evaluations and Inequalities
May 26th – 28th: Getting Real About Impact Evaluation

Further details on each class and how to secure your place on this
year’s courses can be found on the Summer School website.
http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/ruhbc/evaluation/summerschool2008/index.html

This website will be updated regularly so please check periodically.
Don’t hesitate to reach us at RUHBC.SummerSchool@ed.ac.uk if
you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Sanjeev Sridharan

Head Evaluation Programme
RUHBC
University of Edinburgh
Teviot Place
Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
Scotland, UK

next Outcome Mapping training workshop in Europe

Date: April 22-24, 2008
Venue: Ede, The Netherlands

(from the OM email list)

Colleagues,
This is to let you know that MDF Training & Consulting will be hosting my next Outcome Mapping training workshop in Europe at its headquarters in Ede, The Netherlands, April 22-24, 2008. You can see the full description of this introductory course at: http://www.mdf.nl/index.php/page/85/outcome-mapping?mod[MDFCourseCalendarModule][item

]=95

If you have colleagues or partners who may be interested, they can register at:
http://www.mdf.nl/index.php/page/85

Cheers,
Terry

Quote:
—
Terry Smutylo
542 Fraser Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K2A 2R4

Tel(613)729-6844
Fax(613)288-8993
tsmutylo@magma.ca (tsmutylo@magma.ca)
tsmutylo@gmail.com (tsmutylo@gmail.com)

Monday Developments issue on NGO accountability

(via Niels Keijzer on the Pelikan email list)

The December 2007 issue of Monday Developments, a monthly magazine
published by InterAction (the largest coalition of NGOs in the United
States), explores key accountability issues for NGOs. Through various
angles, the issue looks into “(…) the conflicts organizations face with
scarce resources, demanding missions and the need to evaluate progress and
effectiveness.”

The articles include views on the topic from development donors, the
Humanitarian Accountability Project, the importance of listening for
accountability, implications for evaluation standards and practice,
downward accountability, …

You can download the magazine here:
http://www.interaction.org/files.cgi/6117_MDDec2007.pdf

Evaluation of Results Based Management at UNDP

(via Niels Keijzer on the Pelikan email list)
The United Nations Development Programme’s independent evaluation office
has recently examined the agency’s adoption of results based management
(RBM). I would like to refer to this evaluation in relation to our recent
exchanges around changing information needs, and the ‘missing middle’ due
to the emphasis on collecting information on outcomes and impact. The main
purpose of this evaluation was to examine the degree to which RBM has
fostered a results culture within the organization, enhanced capacity to
improve management decisions, and strengthened UNDP’s contribution to
development results.

The UNDP website summarises the evaluation results as follows:
“The evaluation concludes that UNDP is largely managing for outputs rather
than outcomes and that the linkages between outputs and intended outcomes
are not clearly articulated. The introduction of corporate systems and
tools, which have had some efficiency benefits, have not however,
strengthened the culture of results in the organization or improved
programmatic focus at the country level. The current approach of defining
and reporting against centrally defined outcomes tends to undermine UNDP’s
responsiveness and alignment to nationally defined outcomes and
priorities. The evaluation makes a number of recommendations to address
these and other challenges.”

Here is a link to a page on the UNDP website, where you can download the
report, the individual chapters, and the management response:
http://www.undp.org/eo/thematic/rbm.html

Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) Training Course

Date: 6-10 October
Venue: College of Europe, Bruges Campus, Belgium

Dear Colleague,

The College of Europe and Jacobs and Associates Europe invite you to participate in our 5-Day Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) Training Course on the principles, procedures, and methods of RIA. This practical, hands-on, course was given in March, and due to demand, will be offered two more times in 2008 — in June and October. The course, by the most experienced public policy and RIA trainers in Europe, is expressly designed for policy officials and executives who use RIA to improve policy results.

The course will benefit any official using RIA in environmental, social and economic fields as well as stakeholders such as business associations, NGOs and consultants who want to understand better how to use RIA constructively. The course is open for subscription worldwide and is presented in the historic city of Bruges, Belgium. A discount is offered for early registration.

Information on RIA Training Course

2008 DATES: 23-27 June and 6-10 October (each course is 5 full days)
LOCATION: College of Europe, Bruges Campus, Belgium
REGISTRATION : For more information and application form go to www.coleurope.eu/ria2008
COST:

  • €2,995 for early registration (includes housing and meals)
  • €3,495 for regular registration (includes housing and meals)

REGISTRATION DEADLINES:

Early registration for the June course runs until 11 May 2008.
Registration closes 1 June 2008.

Early registration for the October course runs until 10 August 2008.
Registration closes on 14 September 2008.

OPEN : World-wide (only 40 seats available per session)
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: English
COURSE OFFERED BY: College of Europe and Jacobs and Associates Europe

The College of Europe provides a wide range of professional training courses, workshops and tailor-made seminars on the European Union in general or on targeted issues. For more information, please visit:
www.coleurope.eu/training or contact Mrs. Annelies Deckmyn by email: adeckmyn@coleurop.be

Jacobs and Associates continues to offer its tailored RIA training courses on-site around the world, adapted to the client’s needs. To discuss an on-site RIA course, contact ria@regulatoryreform.com. For information on the full range of regulatory reform work by Jacobs and Associates, see http://www.regulatoryreform.com/.

Best wishes,
Marc
Scott Jacobs
Managing Director, Jacobs and Associates Europe

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