The last thing that any of us want is a dull evaluation report that sits on a shelf gathering dust. What a complete waste of time and resources that is! To ensure that doesn’t happen make sure that you build in this one thing into your terms of reference: actionable Read more…
Participation is increasingly important. Let me clarify that. Participation in design, development and sometimes implementation of interventions designed to improve a community’s wellbeing is increasingly important. We have seen how the slogans ‘not in my name’ ‘not in our name’ ‘not without me’ ‘not for us without us’ and other Read more…
When I started out in the nonprofit sector evaluators and consultants were aloof, external beings that descended to inform us of how well we were or were not doing; wrote dense impenetrable prose and made pronouncements that could close a project down. Fortunately much has changed! I do still believe Read more…
You might have seen from my social media activity that I participated in the FSI Big Advice Day during Small Charities Week. We also did something similar at our last EUConsult conference in March in London. These sessions can be quite intense. You get assigned organisations based on your skill Read more…
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…
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to be an independent consultant and an independent consultant who is also an evaluator. I’ve been thinking a lot about it because, well, business has been a little slow. Glacial. At first I thought it was ‘just me’. I knew I’d 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…
A version of this blog first appeared on my website in November 2013. It has had a little tweaking but is still as relevant today as it was six years ago… I talk a lot about participation, stakeholder engagement, beneficiary engagement. Not only do I think it is essential to 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…