Well the snacks are the most important element, they keep your energy levels up! When I mention that to groups of stakeholders that have gathered to work on developing a hypothesis for a programme or intervention, they realise that they are not getting off lightly. There is lots of debate Read more…
This article first appeared in the edition of ‘Evaluator’ – the journal of the UK Evaluation Society in May 2019 When I was asked to write on capacity building for tendering and commissioning I thought briefly about making some high-brow comment on the ‘evaluation market place’, or how evaluators and Read more…
We talk a lot about positive impact: the positive impact that a programme or project is having, a positive impact delivered into someone’s life, etc. But we all know that things don’t always go swimmingly. Sometimes, in fact, our interventions don’t have the anticipated results. Sometimes people are actually worse Read more…
This blog is written with the evaluation commissioner (clients) in mind at the stage where they have to assess whether a proposed design is going to be successful, but the advice is relevant for those designing evaluations and those designing terms of reference for evaluations too! It might seem like Read more…
So, you’ve put in place your programme of interventions, you’ve collected data and analysed that data to tell you how well the intervention has gone and you’ve even had an evaluation done (by some lucky person like me) that has highlighted in a report format the impact that your programme Read more…
Picture it: you’re a small charity with limited staff, financial resources and no experience in fancy flowcharts, surveys and log frames. But you know you need to do something to demonstrate your impact. Your supporters are asking questions, your donors want to know what difference you’re making. Even the regulator Read more…
This month I’ve spoken a lot about participatory methods and how I’ve used them to deliver results for clients. Many are sceptical on the true value of participatory approaches other than to include stakeholder voice and as an exercise in consultation. The argument is often that these approaches are not Read more…
It is always exciting to help an organisation develop its vision and goals. Last month I had the opportunity to work with a client and three country teams from India, Egypt and Nepal to establish a Theory of Change following a summative evaluation I completed in 2018 on their work Read more…
Recently I completed a mid-term evaluation for a small client that wasn’t used to doing evaluations. The evaluation process had gone smoothly, but it was clear from the data collection that some of the stakeholders involved didn’t really understand the point of doing an evaluation. So, having completed the draft Read more…
One of the biggest challenges any organisation faces is ensuring strong engagement from beneficiary groups, community stakeholders and other groups involved with or affected by that organisation’s work. NGOs in the global South have gotten better at including beneficiaries and communities in their design processes and mobilising them to be Read more…