Methodology

This guide is provides a basic foundation on how to make evaluations matter. It brings together existing concepts, evaluation methods and tools that have been found to work well in the field in a way that is straightforward and easy to follow....

These TIPS provide practical advice and suggestions to USAID managers on issues related to performance monitoring and evaluation. This publication is a supplemental reference to the Automated Directive System (ADS) Chapter 203.  ...

The aim of this manual is to help those working in the non-profit sector -- non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations (CSOs) -- and the donors which fund them, to observe more accurately what they are achieving through their efforts and to ensure that they make a positive difference in the lives of the people they want to help. Our interest in writing this guide has grown out of the desire to help bring some conceptual clarity to the concepts of monitoring and to determine ways in which they can be harnessed and used more effectively by non-profit practitioners.  ...

This collection introduces the Worldwork model and three case studies of some of its possible applications. The first chapter provides an overview of the model, describing its underlying methodology, perspective, and conceptual framework. The following chapter presents highlights of the theoretical concepts, and elucidates some of the terms and concepts that are used in the subsequent case studies....

A product of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the day-long Evidence Summit, which was held in December 2011 at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, and this report were made possible in part thanks to support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and USIP....

The Institute for Conflict Research, based in Belfast, has performed independent evaluations of PeacePlayers International's local program for several years. In this, their most recent evaluation, they examine the way the organization's programming has evolved over the years to offer a more comprehensive approach to peacebuilding and youth development in Belfast. ...

When we talk about the current state of DM&E in the peacebuilding field, we often lament the fact that we do not have an established evidence base of what works, and that our methodological approaches are still not that sophisticated compared with other disciplines such as education and health....

We need good theories of social change for building the thinking of all involved in processes of development, as individuals, as communities, organisations, social movements and donors. The conventional division in the world today between policy-makers (and their theorising) and practitioners is deeply dysfunctional, leaving the former ungrounded and the latter unthinking. Good concepts help us to grasp what is really happening beneath the surface....

This document aims to be a guide to help to direct the design of a Theory of Change applied to social change processes. However, it is an initial approach that must be furthered based on new experiences and practical applications. ...

Change in the lives of people, in communities and societies is often a complex process. Its course and outcomes depend on many different forces and actors in the context who are pushing for changes in different directions....

This glossary defines and discusses 20 core terms related to conflict transformation in the work of the Berghof Foundation. ...

This TIPS has three purposes. First, it provides guidance for evaluators on the structure, content, and style of evaluation reports. Second, it offers USAID officials, who commission evaluations, ideas on how to define the main deliverable. Third, it provides USAID officials with guidance on reviewing and approving evaluation reports. ...

Data quality assessments (DQAs) help managers to understand how confident they should be in the data used to manage a program and report on its success. USAID’s ADS notes that the purpose of the Data Quality Assessment is to: “…ensure that the USAID Mission/Office and Assistance Objective (AO) Team are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the data, as determined by applying the five data quality standards …and are aware of the extent to which the data integrity can be trusted to influence management decisions.” (ADS 203.3.5.2) This purpose is important to keep in mind when considering how to do a data quality assessment....

The Results Framework (RF) is a graphic representation of a strategy to achieve a specific objective that is grounded in cause-and-effect logic. The RF includes the Assistance Objective (AO) and Intermediate Results (IRs), whether funded by USAID or partners, necessary to achieve the objective (see Figure 1 for an example)....

The achievement of planned results is at the heart of USAID’s performance management system. In order to understand where we, as project managers, are going, we need to understand where we have been. Establishing quality baselines and setting ambitious, yet achievable, targets are essential for the successful management of foreign assistance programs. ...

Outcome Mapping recognizes that development is essentially about people relating to each other and their environment. The originality of this approach lies in its shift away from assessing the products of a program to focus on changes in behaviour, relationships, actions, and activities in the people, groups, and organizations it works with directly....

This guide is aimed at staff working in all such organisations. There are 30 tools and techniques contained here, divided into five categories: i) Strategy Development; ii) Management Techniques; iii) Collaboration Mechanisms; iv) Knowledge Sharing and Learning Processes; and v) Knowledge Capture and Storage. ...

Why “Tiny Tools” for assessing change? Currently, change is mostly assessed by NGO staff or external experts. The vision of this paper is that communities assess and reflect change themselves and make use of that reflection....

This book off ers an accessible introduction to the topic of impact evaluation and its practice in development. Although the book is geared principally toward development practitioners and policy makers, we trust that it will be a valuable resource for students and others interested in impact evaluation. ...

This guide introduces a conceptual framework, or roadmap, to program and project planning. It is designed to help development practitioners understand the process of design. ...