Reflection

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? ...

Evaluation criteria and standards evolve through theory, practice, reflection, discussion, research, and meta-evaluation. This paper strives to identify processes that can be employed to achieve credible and useful evaluation findings about impact. ...

Evaluation criteria and standards evolve through theory, practice, reflection, discussion, research, and meta-evaluation. This paper strives to identify processes that can be employed to achieve credible and useful evaluation findings about relevance.   ...

The idea to initiate the formulation of a framework for assessing the cultural impact of development policies and projects came out of the INCD third annual meeting held in Cape Town (South Africa) in October 11-13, 2002. The primary objective is to outline a framework that will assist development agencies and private interests in fulfilling their obligations towards the affected communities of their policies and projects, and in so doing respect, preserve and promote cultural diversity and identity. According to the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), impact assessment simply defined, “is the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action”. ...

In efforts to measure empowerment, do indicators mean what they are supposed to mean? Are the values they reflect appropriate? This paper examines the measurement of three dimensions of empowerment: resources (the conditions under which choices are made); agency (the process by which choices are made); and achievements (the outcomes of choices)....

This report presents key messages and findings from the People’s Peacemaking Perspectives (PPP) project. They are relevant not only to European Union (EU) actors working in or on conflict-affected and fragile states and the peacebuilding community, but to anyone who recognises the importance of conflict analysis and is striving to do – and use – it more effectively. ...

In recent years, the peacebuilding field made a commitment to improving its evaluation practices. From the newer Search for Common Ground evaluation database, to the established OECD-DAC evaluation guidelines, to the practical CDA Collaborative Learning Projects' Toolbox and Church and Rogers' Designing for Results, resourced for program design and implementation evaluation now exist....

This is a collection of narratives that serve to illustrate some not-so-obvious lessons from our ongoing storytelling pilot project in Kenya. We gathered a large body of community stories that revealed what people in various communities believed they needed, what services they were getting, and what they would like to see happen in the future....

This is the second paper devised by the Peace Building Learning Group (Learning Group 2) of UNA and follows on directly from paper one which presented an overview of the key issues and challenges facing early childhood organisations when developing programmes in conflict affected regions....

This paper shares the first results of an ongoing collaborative action research in which ten development organisations explored different Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) approaches with the aim of dealing more effectively with complex processes of social change....

This Issue of Accord draws on multiple perspectives from across societies in both countries to explore comparative lessons and examine progress, building on analysis and recommendations from previous Accord publications on Liberia (Issue 1: 1996) and Sierra Leone (Issue 9: 2000) [see BOX 1]....

Accountability and transparency initiatives have taken democratisation, governance, aid and development circles by storm since the turn of the century. Many actors involved with them – as donors, funders, programme managers, implementers and researchers – are now keen to know more about what these initiatives are achieving....

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....

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....

Understanding how social norms affect change in practices and behaviours is becoming an increasingly ‘hot topic’ in development discourse.   ...

  The struggle against poverty is political and economic, but it is also a cultural struggle. Poverty is centrally related to voice, participation in public discourse, and access to the public sphere. This perspective requires a new approach from policymakers who need to understand poverty as a matter not only of economic factors, but also of voice and agency....

This book is about the effectiveness of peace practice. ...

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 article describes a participative ranking methodology for identifying local understanding of reintegration and adjustment of potential value in programme planning and evaluation. It was applied in the context of girls formerly associated with fighting forces in Sierra Leone....

This report examines the broader utility of social media for the adoption of health promoting and protective behaviours. ...