#evaluation

Ricardo Ramirez, Dal Brodhead

May 8, 2018
4 min

Capacity development in both evaluation & communication: proven benefits and future directions

[This blog post was written by Ricardo Ramirez & Dal Brodhead, Principal Investigators of the project Designing Evaluation and Communication for Impact (DECI)] In this posting we share our practical experience in capacity development in the fields of evaluation and communication. We have been mentoring projects to produce evaluation and communication strategies together. Our partners have been research projects globally, all of which aim to influence national policies in the

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Zenda Ofir

Apr 6, 2016
3 min

GOOD evaluation engages with POWER

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Zenda Ofir, South African scientist, independent international evaluator, and knowledge management specialist. The piece was originally published at Zenda’s new blog Evaluation for Development, which P&I strongly recommends.] I have come to the conclusion that nearly everything in life is influenced by power. Yet we almost never evaluate for it. It is difficult to be powerless and happy. The type and extent of the power we want will di

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Outcome Mapping: a liberating tool for program design

Clara Richards

Jan 20, 2016
4 min

Outcome Mapping: a liberating tool for program design

I have been using the logical framework approach for many years to help organisations with designing their projects or monitoring and evaluation systems. I do believe that the analytical steps are very powerful; the logframe process has two stages – the analytical stage (stakeholder analysis, problem analysis, objectives analysis and alternatives analysis) and then the design stage where you actually build your results chain, and identify your assumptions, indicators and mea

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Insights into the state of research systems in developing countries – Part 2

Clara Richards

Oct 8, 2015
3 min

Insights into the state of research systems in developing countries – Part 2

In May 2015, as part of INASP’s strategy development process, we engaged an independent consultant to conduct a phone/skype survey of 39 stakeholders from 26 countries who represent different parts of the research and development system. In her previous blog post, Sue Corbett shared some of the positive messages that emerged from the survey about the progress of research in the south. In today’s blog she looks at the persistence of “old problems” and complex challenges. As di

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Insights into the state of research systems in developing countries – Part 1

Clara Richards

Oct 6, 2015
3 min

Insights into the state of research systems in developing countries – Part 1

In May 2015, as part of INASP’s strategy development process, we engaged an independent consultant, Teresa Hanley, to conduct a phone/Skype survey of 39 stakeholders from 26 countries who represent different parts of the research and development system. Survey respondents included researchers, research and programme managers, senior university personnel, librarians, journal editors, capacity builders and donors. They work in universities, government departments, NGOs, think t

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Monitoring, evaluation and learning to manage and implement research projects at think tanks

Clara Richards

Oct 1, 2015
2 min

Monitoring, evaluation and learning to manage and implement research projects at think tanks

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Rezarta Delibashzade, Project management/Researcher at the Democracy for Development Institute (D4D) from Kosovo. It is part of a series of reflections from participants and facilitators of the Online training to strengthen Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning on policy influence, supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] I am Rezarta Delibashzade and I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend “ Online

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Reflections on developing a MEL framework

Clara Richards

Aug 27, 2015
4 min

Reflections on developing a MEL framework

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Dena Lomofsky from of Southern Hemisphere. It emerges from reflection from P&I´s online course on Monitoring, evaluating and learning on policy influence, supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] Thinking small needs thinking big first. When designing how to monitor and evaluate it is best to start with the big picture and understand the intervention in its full complexity, and then narrow it down to fit the com

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Our need to talk about power & knowledge in evaluation & policy cultures

Clara Richards

Jul 21, 2015
4 min

Our need to talk about power & knowledge in evaluation & policy cultures

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Paul R. Kelly, PhD Researcher in Impact, Evaluation & Service Design, Lancaster University, UK. Email: paulrichardkelly@gmail.com.] Introduction Welcome attention is now being paid to how evaluations can better engage with and contribute to policy processes, beyond dissemination alone. One example of this trend is CIPPEC’s work on influencing public policy assessments (2015). To add to this kind of work, I would also like pose some qu

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Strenghts of think tanks for MEL: it’s time to make better use of them

Clara Richards

Jul 2, 2015
3 min

Strenghts of think tanks for MEL: it’s time to make better use of them

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Dena Lomofsky from of Southern Hemisphere. It emerges from reflection from P&I´s online course on Monitoring, evaluating and learning on policy influence, supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] While conducting the on-line course for Politics & Ideas on monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL onwards) for policy influence, we facilitated a brainstorming session about what think tanks already have in place to

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RAC´s takeaways on how to monitor and evaluate policy influence: the importance of starting small

Clara Richards

May 19, 2015
3 min

RAC´s takeaways on how to monitor and evaluate policy influence: the importance of starting small

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Zoryana Kozak, co-founder and Senior Policy Expert of the Resource & Analysis Centre “Society and Environment”, Ukraine. It is part of a series of reflections from participants and facilitators of the Online training to strengthen M&E&L on policy influence in Central and Eastern Europe, supported by the Think Tank Fund.] I would like to say few words and share my experience of participation in the “Online training to strengthen Monito

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Fostering the use of evaluation and research in policy making: the Presidency’s Department of

Clara Richards

Mar 19, 2015
2 min

Fostering the use of evaluation and research in policy making: the Presidency’s Department of

South Africa has had a policy unit in the Presidency for some time, which since the mid-2000s also focused on M&E. This was reinforced in 2009 with a new administration focusing on using M&E to improve services. In parallel a project called the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD) was working with the Presidency and other stakeholders around evidence-based policy making. This work pointed to a problem around supply (for example that researchers do not unde

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What’s the evidence on Evidence Informed Policy Making?

Clara Richards

Nov 18, 2014
3 min

What’s the evidence on Evidence Informed Policy Making?

One of the key indicators of policy influence is ‘framing debates’ (Jones and Villar, 2008) and there is no doubt that the narratives around whether and how development policy makes use of evidence have shifted enormously in the last five years. Take, for example, the phrase ‘evidence-based policy’. It has all but disappeared, in favour of ‘evidence-informed policy’ (EIPM). One reason for the shift in terminology is in recognition of the fact that evidence is often most appr

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Implementing an M&E system – a postcard from the trenches

Clara Richards

Sep 16, 2014
4 min

Implementing an M&E system – a postcard from the trenches

Implementing an M&E system – a postcard from the trenches ‘Seriously?! As if we don’t have enough work already! Besides, we’re researchers, not bureaucrats’. As jarring as it is to the ear of a monitoring and evaluation specialist, this reaction is not uncommon in think tank corridors upon introduction of an M&E system. So what stands a believer to do? Well, though I certainly don’t have the answer, I could offer a glimpse into one programme’s M&E (mis)adventures. If you and

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Monitoring and evaluation for management

Clara Richards

Jul 31, 2014
2 min

Monitoring and evaluation for management

[Editor’s note: This post originally appeared at On Think Tanks. It is part of a series of posts reflecting on a long term mentoring project with ASIES from Guatemala and Grupo Faro from Ecuador.] When donors think of M&E they tend to think of demonstrating influence; but when think tanks think of M&E their first concern is how this may help them improve their own internal management. Monitoring and evaluation for management ought to be the first concern of donors, but it isn

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M&E systems: the importance of adopting a systems approach to implementing M&E systems

Clara Richards

Jul 10, 2014
3 min

M&E systems: the importance of adopting a systems approach to implementing M&E systems

[Editor’s note: This post is the second of a series of posts focused on the nitty-gritty of designing and implementing M&E systems by sharing on the ground learning and experience. This series is produced by Dena Lomofsky of Southern Hemisphere. The first post can be read here] Over the past few years I have become increasingly concerned about the implementation of M&E frameworks and plans that we help our clients develop, often NGOs or Think Tanks. Why do organisations strug

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How can organisations better implement Monitoring and Evaluation plans?

Clara Richards

Jun 20, 2014
4 min

How can organisations better implement Monitoring and Evaluation plans?

[Editor’s note: This post is the first of a series of posts focused on the nitty-gritty of designing and implementing M&E systems by sharing on the ground learning and experience. This series is produced by Dena Lomofsky of Southern Hemisphere] Implementing M&E systems is an organisation wide effort that requires rethinking organisational structure and culture. At Southern Hemisphere we have developed a participatory process to design the M&E system. A participatory process

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Cry for help: monitoring, evaluating and learning in the South, how can we do it better?

Clara Richards

Jun 9, 2014
4 min

Cry for help: monitoring, evaluating and learning in the South, how can we do it better?

By kat m research at flickr.com under CC license Catherine Fisher´s post on our Lessons learned paper as well as Antonio Capillo´s points regarding M&E of capacity building activities have made me reflect more deeply on how we can better grapple the way we “measure” what we achieve through capacity building in terms of strengthening the link between research and policy. As Catherine rightly highlighted in our paper we can say very little about how the Spaces for Engagement pr

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Lesson #16: Bring others into monitoring, evaluation and learning of capacity building activities

Clara Richards

May 2, 2014
4 min

Lesson #16: Bring others into monitoring, evaluation and learning of capacity building activities

At Spaces for Engagement, our M&E approach was linked to the way the programme was developed: since we presented yearly plans on activities to be conducted, we mainly annually measured success by evaluating impact of each planned CB activity. However, after reading Antonio Capillo´s reflection in his previous post on this topic, I believe we could have begun every year by designing an approximate theory underpinning the expected change or impact over time, as short as this wa

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Mentoring researchers in evaluation & communication: Examples in the making

Clara Richards

Nov 18, 2013
3 min

Mentoring researchers in evaluation & communication: Examples in the making

This post is about a mentoring approach to capacity development in the field of evaluation, more specifically using Utilization-focused Evaluation (UFE). What we detail here is noteworthy in that the funder (Canada’s IDRC) has allowed its partners the leeway to design their own evaluations without prescribing the purposes or methods. Our experience contrasts with issues raised by Goran Buldioski blog of Nov. 11th (in this series) where he ponders about the benefits of Think T

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Nine challenges towards think tanks evaluation in Latin America

Clara Richards

Nov 14, 2013
4 min

Nine challenges towards think tanks evaluation in Latin America

[Editor’s Note: This post was written by Natalia Aquilino, Director of the influence, Monitoring and Evaluation Programme at CIPPEC, with Leandro Echt’s collaboration.] Consensus regarding evaluation relevance as a transparency and accountability strategy is rising for Latin American think tanks. Evaluation initiatives are being triggered by programmes with strong regional presence such as the Think Tank Initiative as well as by a legitimate bottom-up need from the TTs themse

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