M&E training to be provided by MDF-ESA

MDF-ESA is a training and consultancy organisation strengthening management capacities of people and their organisations. MDF-ESA is part of the international MDF Group delivering services adapted to the East and South African context. In May and June 2008, MDF-ESA offers the following [M&E related] training courses:

Project Cycle Management (PCM): Planning 9 – 13 June 2008 Nairobi, Kenya

PCM Plan deals with the dominant planning methods for projects in development setting as well as private sector, covering Stakeholder analysis, logicalframe approach, indicators, resource allocation and budgeting, appraisal and proposal writing

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) 16 – 20 June 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

PCM M&E provides skills and tools to design a results-based monitoring system. The participants must be familiar with the logframe approach.

Please visit our website for more information: http://www.mdf.nl/index.php/page/78

Or contact Tine th@mdf.nl

M&E training to be provided by IMA International

June 2008

IMA International’s Project Planning Course 2-6 June 2008 in Bangkok. All you need to know about project design, participatory planning and implementing your project through a robust log-frame. Integrate your long-term goals into your day-to-day schedule. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

July 2008

IMA International’s Monitoring & Evaluation in Development Course 7-18 July in Cape Town. A structured approach to developing, maintaining and implementing an M&E system. Including SMART indicators, data collection, analysis and communicating results. Emphasis on participatory methods to promote stakeholder commitment for sustainability. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

IMA International’s Advanced M&E Workshop 21-25 July in Cape Town. This course will provide a step-by-step process for designing sustainable M&E systems at programme level, addressing common challenges such as the needs of multiple stakeholders; operating within specific organisational and social cultures; dove-tailing the requirements of project, area, regional and national levels. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

November 2008

IMA International’s Monitoring & Evaluation in Development Course 10-21 November in Bangkok. A structured approach to developing, maintaining and implementing an M&E system. Including SMART indicators, data collection, analysis and communicating results. Emphasis on participatory methods to promote stakeholder commitment for sustainability. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

IMA International’s Advanced M&E Workshop 24-28 November in Bangkok. This course will provide a step-by-step process for designing sustainable M&E systems at programme level, addressing common challenges such as the needs of multiple stakeholders; operating within specific organisational and social cultures; dove-tailing the requirements of project, area, regional and national levels. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

IMA International’s Project Planning Course 10-14 November 2008 in Bangkok. All you need to know about project design, participatory planning and implementing your project through a robust log-frame. Integrate your long-term goals into your day-to-day schedule. For more information, or to apply, see our website at www.imainternational.com

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