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…
In the latest edition of ‘Evaluation’ – the UK Evaluation Society’s journal – I read an article about how evaluation practitioners need to challenge the standard way of doing things. In particular the author was advocating using systems thinking and complexity more in evaluation design and implementation. This surprised me. Read more…
You will remember that last month I mentioned that M&E was one of the five basic planning issues that social impact organisations needed to get right. So what happens when M&E doesn’t work? What happens when, despite best efforts, either the wrong data is collected or the tools and M&E Read more…
I was asked this question by a client recently: “why is it always about data?” The organisation has struggled to identify appropriate measures to track its programme performance and impact, it has some systems in place but needs to improve and in exasperation one of the team turned to me Read more…
Among the most memorable projects I’ve done are a couple of evaluations on networks and consortia. I find these types of evaluations really fascinating as the clients are all generally independent organisations working together towards shared goals or for a shared grant. This brings into play a lot of different Read more…
One of the systems thinking tools that I use a lot is a stakeholder analysis based on core systems concepts of inter-relationships, perspectives and boundaries. Inter-relationships: How do things connect with each other?This is the most familiar systems concept and the oldest. Inter-relationships can be dynamic, linear and nonlinear, have Read more…
I recently took on a project that included identifying the key elements of a successful intervention. This gave me the opportunity to use a rarely used tool in the evaluator tool box: qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). Qualitative Comparative Analysis (Ragin, 1987) in a case-based method that allows evaluators to systematically Read more…
For the past year I have been lucky enough to be supporting Advising Communities as it delivered a pilot project called Money Well that supported people with mental health needs and low levels of well-being to become more financially capable through a mix of 1:1 support and group work. The Read more…
Recently I was asked by Itad to guest blog on an exciting piece of research that we had done together for PSI MozambiqueFunding PSI Mozambique. It was (obviously) on my favourite subject – core funding! Well head on over there and tell me what you think!