Cross-Cutting

Results-orientation, impact assessment, and value for money have been creating a growing buzz in the fields of international cooperation and peacebuilding for the last few years. But what are the consequences of an increased focus on results for practice? ...

Presented by the Conflict Sensitivity Consortium, this guide provides practical advice suitable for anyone aiming to improve conflict sensitivity, whether in the field of development, humanitarian aid or peacebuilding work. It aims to provide user-friendly information for people who are focusing at project or at organisation-wide level, whether aiming for best practice or just starting out on the journey towards conflict sensitivity. ...

We are interested in receiving papers which critically examine the politics, ethics and methods of conducting evaluations and research that asks evaluative questions in violently divided societies.  This call is open to papers which critical examine any kind of evaluation, any kind of programme, project, or intervention, in any sector, as long as it is set with the context of a violently divided society – be it divided by militarized violence, social violence, structural violence, and so on.  We are interested in papers which are sensitive to, or which focus on, the ways in which the violent context affects evaluation, and the ways in which evaluation affects violent conflicts (constructively or destructively).  A short list of possible issues might include: methodological limitations or possibilities of evaluation approaches in VDS; ethical challenges and dilemmas; competing ethical systems; Insider-Outsider issues; tensions around questions of integrity; competing interests; antithetical outcomes; security and safety; contested realities; power imbalances; gendered dimensions; parasitic development and evaluation interventions; data manipulation; multiple and competing accountabilities; cash-transaction relationships; epistemic colonialism, and paradigm clashes -- to name but a few. ...

In January 2012, Search for Common Ground (SFCG), Nepal finished a project called Women Building Community Peace in Eastern Terai. Funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), this project’s overall goal was to strengthen the role of women and girls in the Eastern Terai to be a positive force for peacebuilding at the local level....

This guide aims to assist evaluators and their clients in the process of engaging stakeholders—those with a stake or interest in the program, policy, or initiative being evaluated. The guide should assist philanthropy, but also the field of evaluation more generally, as it seeks to increase the value and usefulness of evaluation. ...

Baseline studies are the first assesssment to be conducted and as such provide a set of evidence and insights at the start situation of the project target group and the context of the intervention, so that other evaluations conducted later on may be measured against this information. ...

This publication offers a number of strong contributions from senior officers in institutions dealing with national monitoring and evaluation systems, such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) and the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE)....

This report proposes a new, evidence-based police measurement system called PRIME (Police Reform Indicators and Measurement Evaluation). PRIME is a forward-looking diagnostic tool that will give UNPOL and the donor community a more comprehensive and systematic way to assess police reform outcomes in postconflict environments....

Three themes dominate this report: Capacity development needs special attention and focus. It needs practitioners who will think constantly about how best to leave a sustainable institutional legacy. But it loses relevance as an idea when discussed in the abstract....

This paper explores the evidence base for what makes an effective coalition with the assumption that understanding what makes them effective and how to assess and improve them will increase their effectiveness as an advocacy tool and reduce potential frustrations associated with operating in coalition. ...

The Theory of Change Assessment: Cheat Sheet tool can be used to conduct an analysis of a theory of change. The tool walks users through elements common to theories of change, and offers considerations for conducting the assessment. ...

This handbook can stand alone as a guide on how to design andconstruct a results-based M&E system in the public sector. It can alsobe used in conjunction with a workshop developed at the WorldBank entitled “Designing and Building a Results-Based Monitoringand Evaluation System: A Tool for Public Sector Management.” Thegoal of the handbook is to help prepare you to plan, design, and implementa results-based M&E system within your organization....

This ‘Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results’is an updated edition of the 2002 edition of ‘Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluatingfor Results’. It seeks to address new directions in planning,monitoring and evaluationin the context of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) corporatestrategic plan, the requirements of the UNDP evaluation policy approved by theExecutive Board in 2006 and the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG)‘Standards for Evaluation in the UN System’....

Development organisations need to know how effective their efforts have been. But who should make these judgements, and on what basis? Usually it is outside experts who take charge. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is a different approach which involves local people, development agencies, and policy makers deciding together how progress should be measured, and results acted upon....

This research aims to provide practical suggestions concerning the method of implementation of participatory evaluation by focusing on how such evaluation should be conducted at aid agencies. ...

This manual attempts to be a practical step-by-step guide to prepare and carryout benchmarking and impact analyses of projects. The audience is policy makers, mainlyin the research or strategic departments of ministries. However, more operationaldepartments may also have an interest in the concepts explained....

The committee provides recommendationson how USAID can design its activities to gain greaterknowledge of which DG projects are most effective in the field and howto use that knowledge—drawing on both internal experience and outsideexpertise—to guide and improve future democracy assistance....

This 2009 version of the ‘Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating forDevelopment Results’ aims to support UNDP in becoming more results-oriented andto improve its focus on development changes and real improvements in people’s lives.It replaces and updates the previous Handbook from 2002....

This handbook was developed to enhance the ability of strategic objective teams—those USAID officersand their partners responsible for program management—to monitor progress in achieving plannedresults and use performance information to guide program implementation. USAID’s Center forDemocracy and Governance undertook this effort, recognizing that defining objectives, establishingbenchmarks, and assessing progress in the democracy and governance arena(s) present unique challenges to the Agency....

Authored by staff members Véronique Dudouet, Hans J. Giessmann and Katrin Planta, it presents key lessons learnt and policy recommendations based on findings from the participatory research project “Non-state armed groups and security transition processes” (2009-2012). ...