tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41772972805752957322024-03-14T06:31:09.436+01:00people-centred developmenta notebook about human development and evaluation by michaela raabMichaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-83877250267336848332023-06-16T09:42:00.004+02:002023-06-16T09:43:23.558+02:00Come and see me @evalfacil.eu<p>My blog has moved to my website <a href="http://evalfacil.eu">evalfacil.eu</a>. Come and look up my latest posts under the "blog" tab over there, at <a href="http://evalfacil.eu">evalfacil.eu</a>!<br /></p><p><br /></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-31138119394184874942021-09-13T21:48:00.001+02:002021-09-13T21:48:44.244+02:00Moving to evalfacil.eu<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In its 13th year (can you believe it ?!), this blog moves to my new <a href="https://evalfacil.eu" target="_blank">website</a>, on a dedicated <a href="https://evalfacil.eu/blog/" target="_blank">blog page</a>. Over the coming months, I will review the content on developblog.org and move some favourites to the new virtual space. And then, in a year or two or three, I will close down developblog.org, this very page you're on right now.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bihGvF_EUo0/YT-qtbBNAfI/AAAAAAAATJA/wUgdLDT6VmQ-BnVokMqxNiOxfitVdj7sQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1545/screenie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1545" height="168" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bihGvF_EUo0/YT-qtbBNAfI/AAAAAAAATJA/wUgdLDT6VmQ-BnVokMqxNiOxfitVdj7sQCNcBGAsYHQ/w320-h168/screenie.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I hesitate to praise Blogger/Google but I can't help being grateful for such a low-threshold space to publish content, keep a (now defunct) library of links to interesting sites, share information on my activities and so forth. It has been fun to check the analytics, realising that my posts have attracted readers from all world regions, from Iceland to the Pacific Islands! <br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There are much better-resourced online libraries on monitoring and evaluation now. But I will continue writing, on my new blog, because blogging is an excellent way to organise one's thoughts. Please do pay a visit to <a href="https://evalfacil.eu/blog/" target="_blank">evalfacil blog</a> and if you have followed me here, start following me there! There will also be an option to share comments.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Many thanks for reading me!<br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><br /></p><iframe class="fskey-autofill-dlg" id="fskey-iframe" sandbox="allow-same-origin" style="display: none;"></iframe><div class="fskey-tooltip" id="fskey-tooltip" style="display: none;"><span class="fskey-tooltiptext" id="fskey-tooltiptext"></span></div>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-7333422941012283772021-08-18T12:31:00.000+02:002021-08-18T12:31:13.443+02:00Diskussionsforum: Evaluation und Wissenschaftlichkeit (in German)<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Am 17. September ab ca. 13:45 veranstalten wir - Bernward Causemann, Ines Freier und ich - ein Diskussionsforum bei der 24. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Evaluation (DeGEval). Als erfahrene, mit-allen-Wassern-gewaschene und mit wissenschaftlichen Methoden vertraute Evaluationsgutachter:innen werden wir das Spannungsfeld beleuchten, das sich zwischen der Standardisierung und Normierung von Evaluation (im Sinne einer auf diese Weise verstandenen Wissenschaftlichkeit) und den Ansprüchen an die Nützlichkeit von Evaluation aufgebaut hat, und vertiefte Diskussionen zu diesem Thema moderieren.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Auch dieses Jahr findet die Tagung online statt; es besteht die Möglichkeit, sich für einzelne Tage anzumelden. Unser Diskussionsforum ist Teil der Sitzung D7 (</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span class="font11">Blitzvortragssession und Diskussionsforum).</span> Mehr dazu auf der <a href="https://www.conftool.com/degeval2021/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=76&mode=list" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Konferenz-Website</a>. Wir freuen uns auf eine interessierte Teilnehmerschaft! </span><br /></p><iframe class="fskey-autofill-dlg" id="fskey-iframe" sandbox="allow-same-origin" style="display: none;"></iframe><div class="fskey-tooltip" id="fskey-tooltip" style="display: none;"><span class="fskey-tooltiptext" id="fskey-tooltiptext"></span></div>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-76498556008142398332021-03-29T14:54:00.004+02:002021-04-07T15:27:15.096+02:00Finally! Thoughtful guidance on applying the DAC criteria<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Long-awaited new guidance</b> on applying the evaluation criteria defined by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentD) (OECD-DAC) is finally available in <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/applying-evaluation-criteria-thoughtfully_543e84ed-en" target="_blank">this publication</a>! Long-awaited, because evaluators and development practitioners have grown desperate with assignments that are expected to gauge every single project against every single OECD-DAC criterion, regardless of the project's nature, and of the moment & resources of the evaluation. <b>This new, gently worded document is a weapon evaluators can use to defend their quest for focus and depth </b>in evaluation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Those who commission evaluations, please go straight to page 24, which states very clearly: <i>"The criteria are not intended to be applied in a standard, fixed way for every intervention or used in a tickbox fashion. Indeed the criteria should be carefully interpreted or understood in relation to the intervention being evaluated. This encourages flexibility and adaptation of the criteria to each individual evaluation. It should be clarified which specific concepts in the criteria will be drawn upon in the evaluation and why."</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On page 28, you will find a whole section titles <i><b>Choosing which criteria to use </b></i>which makes it clear that evaluations should focus on the OEC-DAC criteria that make sense in the view of the needs and possibilities of the specific project, and for the evaluation process. It provides a wonderful one-question heuristic: <i>"If we could ask only one question about this intervention, what would it be?"</i> And it reminds readers that some questions are better answered by using other means, such as research projects or a facilitated learning process. The availability of data and resources - including time - for the evaluation helps determine which evaluation criteria to apply, and which not. Page 32 reminds us of the necessity to use a gender lens, with a handy checklist-like table on page 33 (better late than never). <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">About half of the publication is dedicated to defining the six evaluation criteria - relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability - with plenty of examples. This is also extremely helpful. Each chapter comes with a table that summarises common challenges related to each criteri on - and <b>what evaluators and evaluation managers can do</b> to overcome them. It also shows very clearly that lack of preparation on the evaluation management side makes it very hard for evaluators to do a decent job - see for example table 4.3 (p.55) on assessing effectiveness. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The document is a bit ambiguous on some questions: The chapter on efficiency still defines efficiency as <i>the conversion of inputs (...) into outputs (...) in the most cost-effective way possible, as compared to feasible alternatives in the context" </i>(p.58), which makes it extremely hard to assess the efficiency of, say, a project that supports litigation in international courts - interventions that may take decades to yield the desired result. However, the guidance document states that resources should be understood in the broadest sense and include full economic costs. On that basis, one can indeed argue, as Jasmin Rocha and I have on <a href="https://zendaofir.com/efficiency-criterion/" target="_blank">Zenda Ofir's blog</a>, that non-monetary costs, hidden costs and the cost of inaction must be taken into account. Yet, table 4.4 on efficiency-related challenges remains vague (p.61). Has anyone read the reference quoted in the table (Palenberg 2011)? I did and found it very cautious in its conclusion. My impression is that in many cases, evaluators of development interventions are not in a position to assess efficiency in any meaningful manner. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On the whole, I would describe the new OECD-DAC publication as <b>a big step forward</b>. I warmly recommend it to anyone who designs, manages or commissions evaluations. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-87779392915280568602021-03-29T10:05:00.001+02:002021-03-29T10:05:12.141+02:00Für Deutschsprachige: Online Moderieren - Lebendig und Produktiv<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mein online-Workshop zu online-Workshops ist am 26.Mai online! Mehr Informationen und Anmeldungsmöglichkeiten gibt es beim <a href="https://www.pme-campus.de/online-workshops-moderieren/" target="_blank">PME-Campus</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Apologies to those who don't speak German - my first workshop on online facilitation will be in German. But if it works out nicely, I might offer sequels in English and in French! A bon entendre, Michaela<br /></span></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-86508240976439881052021-03-12T15:54:00.004+01:002021-03-26T11:18:03.323+01:00Join my workshop on online facilitation in PME <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After a year of lockdown-induced life in cyberspace, web-based workshops have become a routine in planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME). </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Workshops are about exchange, about developing something together. But </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">often, </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have witnessed online workshops that were so virtual you hardly noticed the participants. Seemingly endless pages of screen-shared text being read out, word by word, in a soothing voice. No breaks. Confusion about technical refinements, links posted to inaccessible clouds. The loneliness of the person who finds herself alone in the main channel, without any pre-assigned breakout group... </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But there are also online workshops that </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">actually work, that engage us in an exhilarating process, and that produce results. They can be more efficient than real-life workshops. And they surely save enormous amounts of CO2 and travel costs. Even though many miss the informal encounters at the coffee machine, over lunch, in the bathroom line (we're in 2021 and people identified as male still enjoy better acess to toilets than the rest of us) - I suspect that online workshops are here to stay. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It takes deliberate planning, adaptive pacing and plenty of participation to make an online workshop work. After more than a year of developing, facilitating and documenting a range of workshops on different platforms, I am distilling key insights into a short workshop for German speakers - online, of course! Not the technical stuff - the providers' video tutorials take care of that - but key principles and ways to apply them. I'd be delighted to meet you. More details in German) are available <a href="https://www.pme-campus.de/online-workshops-moderieren/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-16451013252340321652020-12-30T15:22:00.004+01:002021-01-14T16:53:32.019+01:00Gender equality in organisations: a good resolution for 2021<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Gender equality is a key element of sustainable development – as illustrated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which weave gender across virtually all 17 SDGs. It makes sense that 'mainstream' o</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">rganisations, which are not specialised in promoting gender equality, have developed gender policies and related activities. Where are they at, and what should come next?<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Vera Siber and I carried out a study with four German organisations to find out about their work on gender justice: a political foundation, two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) specialised in international development (a faith-based one and a secular one), and a scientific agency attached to a federal ministry. The four organisations differed in the scope of their work, their size, and the degree to which they stated gender justice as an explicit goal – but they came together to commission our study. We reviewed documentation produced by the four organisations and interviewed some 50 persons representing different perspectives within those groups. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The framework developed by <a href="https://genderatwork.org/analytical-framework/ " target="_blank">Gender at Work</a> guided our analysis. It is a matrix around two axes: formal/informal and individual/systemic. That is, it defines four realms: The individual/informal square relating to personal consciousness and capabilities, the systemic/informal one to unwritten norms and practice. The individual/formal square refers to individual resources, the systemic/formal one rules and policies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The four squares of the matrix look different in each of the four organisations (cases) we researched. On the formal/systemic side, all cases displayed gender policy papers, but the documents varied enormously in their scope and precision. Three organisations employed gender specialists; one did not. In all cases, staff members from different departments met regularly to discuss gender issues – but only in one case, job descriptions allocated time for those activities. The degree to which gender was integrated in planning and monitoring processes varied widely. On the formal/individual side, women in one case found it easier to reach leadership positions thanks to an adapted recruitment process, and dedicated mentoring and leadership training.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our study has confirmed the notion that gender mainstreaming unfolds tangible outcomes when combined with specific work on gender equality. For example, one organisation had supported women’s organisations in South Asia for many years. They introduced those organisations to ‘mainstream’ grantees – i.e., grantees with no specific feminist agenda – to strengthen their thinking and action so that women and girls could contribute to and benefit more fully from their work. In the same case, success stories and pressure by feminist grantees contributed to reshaping the donor’s overall regional strategy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The informal side of the Gender at Work matrix is to a great extent about individual commitment – present in all four cases we reviewed –, and organisational culture. In one case, committed staff members put in their ‘own’ time to organise internal workshops on gender. In that way, they built knowledge within the organisation 'bottom-up', and pressured for more support from the top levels for gender equality. In an opposite case, organisational leadership successfully pushed for the implementation of a progressive gender policy. This top-down approach, arguably necessary when attempting to mainstream gender across an organisation and its work, has raised worries among some of our interlocutors: Would it still be possible to openly voice doubts, start controversial discussions and introduce new ideas? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our study could not answer that question. What emerged clearly was that even organisations with rather advanced systems for gender mainstreaming must continue to update their knowledge and re-examine their goals and approaches regularly, as new needs and interests emerge. For instance, work on the rights of lesbian, gay, bi- and intersexual, transgender and queer persons (LGBTIQ), as well as intersectional approaches that take into account multiple discriminations, were still in their infancy in most cases. Also, from 2017 on, the #metoo movement against sexual harassment at work sparked a need to introduce or strengthen policies and processes. At the time of our research, anti-harassment policies had only just been introduced – or were still in the process of development – in most of the reviewed organisations. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There is no end point to work on gender equality. It takes constant, deliberate, and well-informed efforts to secure the commitment of everyone in an organisation and to ensure its work contributes to gender equality in a changing world. At the very least, organisations should make sure they do not deepen existing inequalities (do no harm). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development exhorts all states to leave no-one behind: Diversity and the ensuing differences in people’s needs and interests must be acknowledged and dealt with. Sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination within organisations and beyond must be identified and countered. There is plenty of instructive experience around the world – organisations can tap into it by multiplying opportunities for exchange, open debate, and joint learning. All this requires dedicated resources. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why not try out gender budgeting, i.e., a process whereby organisations systematically examine their budgets against the anticipated effects on gender equality? If international development agencies can teach governments in the ‘global South’ to introduce gender budgeting, surely, they can do it within their own systems? If these agencies require their partner organisations to display a gender-balanced leadership structure, surely, they can organise their own leadership along the same lines? Would that be a good resolution for 2021 and beyond?</span></p><div><br /></div>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-26209111753967273362020-09-25T08:30:00.001+02:002020-09-25T08:30:03.643+02:00More handy tips for videoconferences<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">An addendum to yesterday's post - ICA:UK, a reliable source of materials and training on highly participatory facilitation, has summarised 10 principles to <a href="https://www.ica-uk.org.uk/the-new-pandemic-online-fatigue-5-tips-to-keep-your-team-awake-productive-and-energised-in-virtual-meetings/" target="_blank">prevent online fatigue</a>. I've been using all of them. They work. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">At any rate, avoid text-filled slide shows with voices droning on in the background! Visual aids are great, but if you just show pages and pages of text that you read to your audience, they'll end up muting you and joining a different event on their other computer. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I admit that was what I did in a recent conference full of half-hour text-rich presentations by invisible voices. I couldn't help it. Since the different conference followed the same mode, I still felt I would have been better off reading an article, in my own time, at my own (rather energetic) pace.</span></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-3886746690996188282020-09-22T16:01:00.002+02:002020-10-02T14:57:23.147+02:00Easy socialising in tight video conferences<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">How to recreate a sense of a "real life" team event in a video conference? In real life (IRL, as nerds put it), people usually linger near the coffee/tea kitchen or in the hallway for a quick chat - one reason why it tends to be so hard to get participants back from "real" breakout rooms. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Random" virtual breakout rooms - if they don't come with too burdensome assignments - can recreate this atmosphere.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Like most facilitators I know, I have facilitated more video conferences in 2020 than ever before. I have discovered that participants tend to hijack virtual breakout rooms: Before getting started on the small group assignment, they'd have an informal chat on totally different subjects. Or, in other cases, they'd get the assignment done as fast as possible so as to spend the rest of the small group chat on their own agendas.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That is a wonderful opportunity. My suggestion to convenors and facilitators: Let's make this a regular feature in video conferences! Every couple of hours, one can fit in a quick bout of socialising, assigning participants to random groups of three or four persons, for some five minutes. This can be scheduled just before or after an official break, so that participants can choose how long they stay in the informal chat, or even as an opportunity for informal exchange after the official closure of the event. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Technically, this could work on any platform that works with breakout rooms - Slack, MS Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Big Blue Button - you name it. Try it out in your next event! </span></p>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-34289599641278811192020-09-10T13:35:00.002+02:002020-09-10T13:35:30.212+02:00Know what you need to know<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Evaluations often come with terms of reference (TOR) that discourage even the most intrepid evaluator. A frequent issue are long lists of evaluation questions that oscillate between the broadest interrogations – e.g. “what difference has the project made in people’s lives” – to very specific aspects, e.g. “what was the percentage of women participating in training sessions”. Sometimes I wonder whether such TOR actually state what people really want to find out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I remember the first evaluation I commissioned, back in the last quarter of the 20th century. I asked my colleague how to write TOR. She said, “Just take the TOR from some other project and add questions that you find important”. I picked up the first evaluation TOR I came across, found all the questions interesting and added lots, which I felt showed that I was smart and interested in the project. Then I shared the TOR in our team and others followed suit, asking plenty more interesting questions.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I wonder whether this type of process is still being used. Typically, at the end, you have a long list of “nice to know”-questions that'll make it very hard to focus on questions that are crucial for the project.</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I know I have written about this before. I can’t stop writing about it. It is very rare that I come across TOR with evaluation questions that appear to describe accurately what people really want and need to find out. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If, as someone who commissions the evaluation, you are not sure which questions matter most, ask those involved in the project. It is very useful to ask them, anyway, even if you think you know the most important questions. If you need more support, invite the evaluator to review the questions in the inception phase – with you and all other stakeholders in the evaluation – and be open to major modifications.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But please, keep the list of evaluation questions short and clear. Don’t worry about what exactly the evaluator will need to ask or look for to answer your questions. It is the evaluator’s job to develop indicators, questionnaires, interview guides and so forth. She’ll work with you and others to identify or develop appropriate instruments for the specific context of the evaluation. (The case is somewhat different in organisations that attempt to gather a set of data against standardised indicators across many evaluations - but even then, they</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> can be focused and parsimonious to make sure they get high quality information and not just ticked-off boxes.) </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Even just one or two evaluation questions is a perfectly fine amount. Anything more than ten can get confusing. And put in some time for a proper inception phase when the evaluation specialists will work with you on designing the evaluation. Build in joint reflection loops. You’ll get so much more out of your evaluation.</span></p><div><br /></div>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-60099064729672106592020-07-13T16:44:00.000+02:002020-07-13T16:44:07.711+02:00My first hackathon #EvalHack<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) has moved its 2020 summer school on-line. As an extra, it has opened up its online evaluation hackathon to external people - like me. I have taken up the invitation, registering for my first evaluation hackathon. Our group challenge was to develop a prototype for efficiency measurement. This is what we have come up with: <a href="https://evalhack.org/project/67?fbclid=IwAR0zxlg5Dkec9SzE7gQUYD4c9c1qRkjxPjPNeAyLIg96v69umbdVtRJlUo8" target="_blank">Evaluation United</a>. I</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">f you like it, scroll to the bottom of that web page and LIKE it; we're in a competition! </span><br />
<a name='more'></a>The hackathon has been a most delightful experience. Our team was composed of people who had never met before, online or off-line, hauling from six different countries and several time zones, from Eastern Pakistan to Washington D.C. in the USA. It took us just one conversation to define a challenge that was interesting - and very challenging! - to all of us. We had just a few hours a day to come up with a solution, working at odd hours. It has been utterly inspiring, embarking the participants on a mind-boggling learning experience, especially on design thinking and online collaboration. Oh, and I learned how to record an explainer video - in just half an hour! <br />
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<br />Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-76240357276310777672020-05-10T21:24:00.000+02:002020-07-24T22:14:31.770+02:00Five tips for remote facilitation<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite the risks and uncertainties associated with independent consulting, I have never felt as privileged as I do now, living in a country with a highly developed, accessible health system, working from my customary home office, and equipped with a decent internet connection and the hardware needed to stay in touch with friends and colleagues. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The crisis has been an opportunity to develop my remote facilitation skills. Before, I facilitated the occasional "real-life" workshop in a video conference room with participants in other locations joining us via Skype or the like. I have shared that type of hybrid experience on the </span><a href="https://gendereval.ning.com/profiles/blogs/theory-of-change-workshop-online-pre-covid-19" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Gender and Evaluation</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> community pages. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now I have gone one step further, facilitating fully remote workshops from my home office. I mean interactive workshops with some 5-20 people producing a plan, a strategic review or other joint piece of work together - not webinars or explanatory videos with hundreds of people huddling around a lecturer who dominates the session. T</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">o my delight, virtual facilitation has worked out beautifully in the workshops I have run so far. Good preparation is a key element - as in any workshop. I have distilled a few tips from my recent experience and from the participants' feedback.</span><br />
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<li><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plan thoroughly and modestly</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Three to four hours per workshop day is enough - and there is only so much you can do in half a day. Factor in breaks (at least one per hour), time for people to get into and out of virtual breakout rooms, and at least five minutes per workshop hour for any technical glitches.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Try to make sure all participants can see each other's faces.</b> Some videoconferencing platforms allow you to see dozens of participants on the same screen. If you use a platform that shows only a handful of speakers, try to rotate speakers so that everyone can catch a glimpse of every participant. Apparently, recent research shows that remote meetings are more effective if people see each other. Smile! Keep interacting with your webcam and watch participants' faces as carefully as you would if you were in a room with them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Pick facilitation tools that match your participants' digital skills</b>. I love software that allows everyone to post "virtual" sticky notes and move them around on a shared whiteboard. But that'll work only if all (or a critical mass of) participants like experimenting with web-based tools. If <i>many</i> participants are uncomfortable with collaborative web-based visualisation, then <i>you</i> can record key points on the virtual whiteboard (life or between sessions), or ask participants to send their text contributions to you or your co-facilitator to post them on their behalf. The best way to gauge participants' readiness is a technical rehearsal well before the workshop (ideally, at least a week earlier).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Share a written technical briefing</b> before the workshop. That should include (i) the links and passwords to the conference and the tools, (ii) guidance as to how to maximise data transmission speed - for instance, by using a LAN cable or by switching off WIFI on all non-necessary devices, by temporarily disabling Windows updates, closing all other computer windows etc., (iii) guidance on troubleshooting in case of major technical problems (e.g. alternative dial-in numbers, persons to contact if a participant fails to get back on-line), and possibly (iv) links to a couple of very short (1-2 minute-) tutorials for any software you may use for web-based joint visualisation or other forms of co-creation. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Do your homework. And give homework. </b>If the digital tools you'll use are new to you, try them out with colleagues and friends before the actual workshop. There is a growing body of video tutorials on the sprawling world of virtual collaboration; check out these resources. I also like <a href="https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/blog/quick-primer-running-online-events-and-meetings" target="_blank">quick primer for running online events</a> on Better Evaluation which contains plenty of useful links. Before and in-between workshops, invite participants to try out any tools that are new to them, and/or to continue working on the collaborative virtual whiteboard.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is generally recommended to work as a tandem, with one facilitator running the workshop and the other one looking after the technical aspects. But if you facilitate only one to two three- to four-hour sessions a week and you type really fast, then you can manage on your own. Be prepared, though, to feel totally exhausted after each session!</span></div>
Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-67829753293975220042020-03-29T15:28:00.000+02:002020-07-24T22:15:21.936+02:00Facilitating with care in lock-down situations<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the current situation of (near-) lock-downs, interviews, meetings and group discussions are moving on-line. And so are workshops, with tutorials and useful advice on running on-line workshops popping up all over the place. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">If, as a facilitator, you want to make sure all workshop participants make the best of a virtual workshop, the challenges of moving on-line are not just technical. When everybody has to work from home, your workshop enters the participants' households. To express it in terms of systems thinking, your workshop is not confined within the borders of office spaces and working hours anymore; it intersects with a number of household systems:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this lock-down situation, virtual workshops that run for two, three 6-8-hour days in a row effectively exclude people with infant/toddler/small child care responsibilities. As workshop planners, we need to adjust our thinking and chop our virtual workshops into smaller units, spreading them over more days, to make sure more people can participate. A windfall benefit is more time for the ideas exchanged in the workshop to settle and to mature between sessions - I quite like that! </span></div>
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Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-61787740777817470982020-03-11T09:38:00.001+01:002020-07-24T22:14:55.454+02:00International Evaluation in Times of the New Coronavirus<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What does the surge of SARS-CoV-2 (the scientific name of the new coronavirus) infections in parts of Europe mean for international evaluation? Can we, as evaluators, join the soothing voices of those who say, the current common flu epidemic has killed many more people and there is no reason to change anything in our lives? I don't think so. I would like to remind all of us of the Do No Harm principle: Research ethics require us to carefully weigh the potential benefits of undertaking research (at a given time) against the potential harm associated with it. We can relax about ourselves but we must not endanger others. International evaluations can also be done without international travel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That is why yesterday, I decided to postpone a case study in an Asian country that has relatively few known coronavirus infections - not because I was worried I would contract the virus, but because I could pass it on to others. I live in Berlin, a city of 3.5 million inhabitants where some 58 cases of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected so far (yesterday's data). That may seem little. But while I formed my decision, it turned out that a close colleague's partner who had been in contact with a Covid-19 patient had developed symptoms of Covid-19 </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">(the name of the disease the virus causes)</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. A few hours later, the Guardian (UK) published an article relating how an apparently healthy British couple contracted SARS-CoV-2 during air travel to Vietnam and left a trail of infected people wherever they went - several places spread across Vietnam. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The health advice published in Germany is to avoid all unnecessary travel. Evaluations are as necessary as ever - yet, most of the time, postponing them would hardly threaten anybody's existence (apart from evaluators' flow of earnings - a risk entrepreneurs are used to). As a matter of fact, many evaluations happen late anyway because of poor planning - see for instance my 2012 post on <a href="https://www.developblog.org/2012/10/take-time-to-prepare-evaluations.html" target="_blank">evaluation planning</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Going on as if there was no public health risk associated with a new, rapidly spreading and potentially deadly virus threatens other peoples' lives, especially in countries where health systems are in poor shape or already overstretched. Especially when travelling to remote regions, we might carry the virus to populations who, by their relative isolation, could be relatively protected if we stayed away. Remember how UN peace keepers introduced cholera into Haiti? Find <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm18323.doc.htm" target="_blank">here</a> the UN Secretary General's apology (2016). The history of colonialism is full of examples of European diseases wiping out previously sheltered communities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What if the evaluation is really urgent, for instance a condition for subsequent project funding (assuming there is no way to re-negotiate the condition in view of a public health crisis)? Work with national evaluators! Even in organisations that find it vital to have an "international" on their evaluation teams, it is established good practice - even in smaller evaluations - to work with "mixed" national/international teams. See also my post on <a href="https://www.developblog.org/2019/05/two-or-three-reasons-why-two-are-better.html" target="_blank">"two are better than one"</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you, as someone who commissions an evaluation, feel you must have an international consultant on the team, invite her to work remotely: Where internet connections are good, workshops, group discussions and interviews can be accompanied via Skype, WhatsApp or a more secure video messaging service. Data collected by the national evaluation team can be analysed in regular phone conferences. Time and resources permitting, the national team can have all its activities audio-recorded, transcribed (and translated, if needed) in full, so that the remote evaluator can follow closely what is happening. There are many options, which can also come in handy if we get more serious about reducing the environmental impact of international travel. I have used these options in my evaluation practice and they have yielded good results. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Remember the old saying about development being all about working "ourselves" (in the "global North") out of "our" business? That applies to international evaluation, too: Let's strive to 'localise' evaluation while developing a rich flow of knowledge and skills exchange across the world!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-46289105403016338102020-02-17T12:31:00.000+01:002020-03-11T09:38:55.804+01:00Proud to be Rosa Marina Flores Cruz's mentor<div style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rosa Marina is the third mentee I present on these pages. Although our mentorship has formally ended, we're still in touch. Rosa has kept me up-to-date on her engagement for indigenous people's rights around the world - most recently at the <a href="https://coady.stfx.ca/iwcl-gathering/" target="_blank">Indigenous Women in Community Leadership </a>gathering in Antigonish, Canada (November 2019). </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As with the previous posts, I am presenting Rosa in a written interview. </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(1) What are the main issues that you are currently working on?</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am an Afro-indigenous activist and researcher from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. I work on topics like rural feminism, environment and energy, and the autonomy and rights of indigenous peoples. I have worked in training projects for community health and human rights promoters, and for the defence of the Right to Free and Informed Prior Consultation. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vjZlTfo7nbk/Xkp3_Z71XWI/AAAAAAAANu0/31Oqze4cGHknCJo7uR3k6zPtMBmewqIfQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG-20191024-WA0048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vjZlTfo7nbk/Xkp3_Z71XWI/AAAAAAAANu0/31Oqze4cGHknCJo7uR3k6zPtMBmewqIfQCEwYBhgL/s400/IMG-20191024-WA0048.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Shirley Kimmayong</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After the earthquake in September 2017, which caused severe damage in our communities, I was the coordinator of a reconstruction project for recovering indigenous women’s traditional productive tools. Now, I am working in a commercialisation enterprise for traditional crafts produced by indigenous women. Also, I am part of an interdisciplinary group promoting a project for participatory public policy with respect to energy transition and climate change. A key purpose is to focus the discussion on the demands of indigenous communities affected by climate change and the construction of energy mega-projects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(2) What makes you an excellent person to work on these issues? </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With respect my strengths in the work I do, the first one is that I was born and I have grown up in the region. Therefore, I have knowledge of the communities’ context that would be difficult to understand for an outsider – for instance on issues related to cultural, economic and political dynamics. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Secondly, I am always looking for new learning and knowledge to strengthen my leadership with tools to face the complexity of the regional problems. Having been part of the Global Change Leaders at Coady International Institute in Saint Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, has given me important support and learning for my community leadership.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(3) How do you deal with obstacles and setbacks?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you work in community and collective contexts, it is really important to analyse obstacles and look for solutions in ways that go beyond individual thinking. You must keep your communication channels open, and be receptive and emphatic. Having someone to accompany you in the process, like a mentor, who you can share doubts with and who can help guiding you, is useful and can shine a light on aspects that you normally ignore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(4) What is your advice to younger women who want to drive change?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Keep trying! Sometimes, when we are young, we easily get discouraged if some project doesn’t work out the way we want. What we must do then is to try and see things from a different perspective so that we can take advantage of our mistakes to grow. Also, I would tell them not to be afraid of feminism, because it can help you a lot to understand where the obstacles are that women leaders usually face. We are fighting against a patriarchal system, and it is never too early to check and learn about our privileges and what we can do with them to change our reality.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(5) What is your advice to people who are in mentorships - in your </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">experience, what makes a mentorship useful?</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To be open to listen and learn from your mentor. The relationship with Michaela was a very fluid and enjoyable relationship that made the experience enriching in terms of knowledge. For me personally, this has been the first time to be part of a mentorship program. To have the guidance and advice of a women leader has been really useful to reflect on my own process. I believe that both of us have won a lot from the conversations we had and I know we will keep doing so in the future.</span><br />
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<br />Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-53893439065980152232019-12-10T12:32:00.000+01:002019-12-10T13:23:40.650+01:00Less is more - also in evaluation questions<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writing evaluation terms of reference (TOR) - that is, the document that tells the evaluators what they are supposed to find out - is not a simple exercise. Arguably, the hardest part are the <b>evaluation questions. </b>That section of evaluation TOR tends to grow longer and longer. This is a problem because: </span><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Abundant detailed evaluations questions may lock the evaluator into the perspective of those who have drawn up the TOR</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, turning the evaluation into an exercise with quite predictable outcomes that </span><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">limit learning opportunities for everyone involved. </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let me explain. For those readers who are not evaluators - just try to imagine you are one, for these two paragraphs (and maybe also when you draw up your next TOR). You are developing an offer for an evaluation, or you have won the bid already and you're preparing the inception report. You sit at your table, alone, or around a table with your evaluation team mates and you gaze at the TOR page - or even pages - of evaluation questions. Lists of 30-40 items totalling 60-100 questions are not uncommon these days. Some questions are broad - of the type, "how relevant is the intervention in the local context", some extremely detailed, for instance "do the training materials match the trainers' skills". (I am making these up but they are pretty close to real life.) Often, in the sector of much of my evaluation activity, the questions are roughly structured along the </span><a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/daccriteriaforevaluatingdevelopmentassistance.htm" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">OECD/DAC criteria for evaluation</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, which are OK. But your specific evaluation might need a different structure to match the logic of the project - think of human rights work or political campaigns, for example. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While you are reading, sorting and restructuring the questions, some important questions come to your mind that are not on the TOR list. You would really like to look into them. But there are already 70 evaluation questions your client want to see answered and the client has made it clear they won't shed a single one. There is only so much one can do within a limited budget and time frame. What will most evaluation teams do? You bury your own ideas and you focus on the client's questions. <b>You end up carrying out the evaluation within your client's mental space. </b>That mental space may be very rich in knowledge and experience - but still, it represents the client's perspective.<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>That </b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>is an inefficient use of evaluation consultants</b> - especially in the case of external evaluations, which are supposed to shed an independent, objective or at least different light on a project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why do organisations come up with those long lists of very specific questions? As an evaluator and as the author of several meta-evaluations, I have two hypotheses: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some evaluations are shoddy. Understandably, people in organisations that have experienced sloppily done evaluations may want to take greater control of the process and they don't realise that tight control means losing learning opportunities. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many organisations adhere to the very commendable practice of involving many people in TOR preparation - but their evaluation department is shy about filtering and tightening the questions so that they form a coherent, manageable package.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What can we do about it? Those who develop TOR should focus on a small set of central questions they would like to have answered - if your budget has less than six digits (in US$ or euros), try to stick to <b>five to ten really important questions - less is more</b>. Build in time for an<b> inception report</b>, where the evaluators must present how they will answer the questions, and what indicators or what guiding questions they'll use in their research. Read that report carefully to see whether it addresses the important details you are looking for - if it doesn't and if you still feel certain details are important, then discuss them with the evaluators.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My advice to evaluators is not to surrender too early - often, clients will be delighted to be presented with a restructured, clearer set of evaluation questions, if your proposal makes sense. If they can't be convinced to reduce their questions, then try to find an agreement as to which questions should receive most attention, and explain which cannot be answered with a reasonable degree of validity. This may seem banal to some among you, but to tell from many evaluation reports in the development sector, it doesn't always happen. </span></div>
Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-18607234819745560582019-12-05T12:24:00.000+01:002020-02-17T12:43:55.836+01:00Proud to be a mentor for Nurshaim Tilenbaeva<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nurshaim Tilenbaeva was my second mentee under the Global Change Leaders Programme. Mentoring Nurshaim, I embarked on a learning journey about about Kyrgyzstan, where Nurshaim lives. I do hope I'll get a chance to travel there! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was one day when I was moved to tears by Nurshaim's honesty in describing difficulties she was facing at the time, at a different work place. Reading her narrative of that conversation now, I remember interviews I have carried out as part of a recent study on gender policies and practice in four German organisations. A couple of persons told me about a leader in their organisation shedding tears in public - which they described as a display of emotional intelligence and an empathetic form of leadership. Interesting! Meanwhile, as I have accumulated more experience in mentoring and coaching, I have learned to empathise differently - but I still get visibly moved when a mentee tells me about her success! </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">And here are Nurshaim's answers to my questions: </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">1) What is the main issue that you are currently working on?</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As a National Professional Officer at WHO, I am responsible for supporting the Government in improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in the country. One of the main issues I currently work on is in relation to reducing maternal mortality in my country, which is still one of the highest in the WHO European region. Maternal mortality is not only a concern of the health sector, many associated factors play a role. Those are social, economical, systemic and gender inequality ones. My work focus addresses this issue from the policy angle. Thus, evidence-based best practices and systemic approaches to inform policy development and implementation are the key directions of my work. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) What makes you an excellent person to work on these issues? </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Above all, I feel strongly about this issue and want to make a change. I believe no women in the 21st century should die while being pregnant or during childbirth. However, we still face issues of health inequalities in many parts of the world, including in my country. Other than that, I was fortunate to acquire skills and knowledge in my field from many distinguished opportunities in my life, including those from short courses, degree programs, fellowships, exchange programs from different parts of the world. Such experience not only enriches oneself, but also strengthens your capacity and motivates to work further to finally reach your goal. And finally, I was fortunate to have great mentors who inspired me, believed in me and supported me in my endeavours. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>3) How do you deal with obstacles and setbacks?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Setbacks and obstacles are perhaps essential ingredients for success. They teach us lessons, make us stronger and make us rise with a new motivation to succeed. Giving up is the worst strategy one can adapt. I try to embrace obstacles and setbacks and learn from them. This really challenges me to try even harder until I reach my goal. Never being afraid to fail and keep trying is important. Furthermore, not being too strict to oneself and self-care could be the best strategies to overcome setbacks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>4) What is your advice to younger women who want to drive change?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Believing in oneself is the key, but also not being afraid to ask for support, provide support when you can to others is equally important. There are many more well-wishers and supporters than we tend to think. Being open to opportunities, new experiences and challenging oneself helps to grow and develop. Avoid being in a comfort zone for too long and embrace all the adventures coming along stimulates more than anything. Self-care should never be ignored.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>5) What is your advice to people who are in mentorships in your experience, what makes a mentorship useful?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Setting a scene and articulating expectations is important. Mentorship is a two-way process, and never a one-sided action. Mentors learn from mentees too. Furthermore, being in a mentorship process is a responsibility from both sides, never underestimate that responsibility. During the process itself, it is important to monitor the progress in order not to have an abstract conversations. However, meeting just for a cup of coffee or tea just to say how "great" or how "bad" was your recent project is also important. If possible, spending some leisure time together can make a magic. Having a great mentor is a treasure for the rest of your life, so value it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>6) What it was like to have you as my mentor?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most important things to mention is the feeling of being heard. Michaela is an exceptional active listener, but beyond that, she was one great empathetic mentor I ever had in my life. I remember one time, I was sharing my recent setback at work, when all seemed ruining around, and at one point I realised, that I made her cry. I will never forget that. Michaela was so dissolved in my story, that was feeling my pain and disappointment and started crying. I was so touched, but at the same time I felt so strongly how empathetic she was and that was all I needed at that time. We might not be in constant contact, we have never met in person, but Michaela has a very special place in my heart as one of the best mentors I ever had. Thank you, Michaela, I might not have said it always, but I can't stop appreciating you and your care I felt during our mentorship process and even now. </span></div>
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Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-86633367663719148262019-11-04T11:51:00.001+01:002020-02-17T12:44:33.981+01:00Proud to be a mentor for Kateryna Kravchuk<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Five years ago, the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (Canada) contacted me with a request to mentor a woman who had just graduated from its Global Change Leaders Programme (GCL). The idea was that we would have a one-hour Skype call every two weeks over a six-month period, to support the graduate in her efforts to translate learning from GCL into practice at home. I loved the idea! My first mentee was Kateryna Kravchuk from Ukraine, very close to my home time zone in Berlin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mentorships are great learning processes for everyone involved, I believe. I have happily agreed to mentor further GCL graduates since that first experience. Some mentees have answered a short set of questions to present themselves on my blog. I will post a mini-series of menteesin the coming weeks, starting today with my first GCL mentee, in her own words: </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Photograph by Andriy Maksymov </i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kateryna Kravchuk </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- the economist, cultural researcher, focused in strategy, monitoring and evaluation of the projects aimed at improving the quality of life. Her main areas </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of expertise are community development, responsible entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and cross-sector cooperation. </span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(1) What is the main issue - or are the two or three main issues - that you are currently working on?</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Currently I am busy with three projects: Creative Enterprise Ukraine (workshops and mentring for young entrepreneurs; keynote speaker for the Gender equality in culture and creative industries research), the evaluation of the UNDP/ADA project “Sustainable local development in rural areas” (two regions in Ukraine) and strategy development for Ivan Honchar Museum – centre for traditional culture in Kyiv. The main issues that are calling me since my childhood and more or less predefine everything I do are:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Economic empowerment as a tool for building personal and institutional resilience</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Leadership and power relations in the organisational environment</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Culture and its impact on sustainable development.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(2) What makes you an excellent person to work on these issues?</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since I do interdisciplinary work, it requires multi-dimension perspective. This I have acquired through my education (both formal and informal) and extensive experiencing of various life situations (mainly through being a Girl Scout in my childhood, and then by continuous volunteering for various causes over the globe). Main skills and knowledge that help me on my professional path are:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Public speaking</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Facilitation skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Embodiment practices</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Monitoring, evaluation, reflection skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Mindful relationship building skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Strategic planning expertise </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Prototyping, risk-taking experience</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Experience in human rights activist movement </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Holistic education management skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Education in economics and cultural studies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Studying and practising the authentic traditions of my land</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(3) How do you deal with obstacles and setbacks?</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Take my time to reflect (even if it needs A LOT of time)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Examine my capacity and leverage my resources (know when to say no)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Ask for help or advice; do not try to do everything on my own</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Study more, practice more (routine that keeps me going even in low energy mode)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Challenge myself; take calculated risks (I like to experiment)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Accept the possibility of failure (I try to enjoy the process as much as the result)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Celebrate small victories (Rule of 5 things I am grateful for everyday)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Dream impossible - I really do not care when someone tells me that my dream is unrealistic and this is what helps me to achieve it.</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(4) What is your advice to younger women who want to drive change?</span></b></i><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take care of yourself </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Know your worth</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Look for like-minded people</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be kind (always!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take the responsibility over your life choices </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speak up</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have a plan</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Enjoy the road and have fun</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>(5) What is your advice to people who are in mentorships - in your </i></b><b><i>experience, what makes a mentorship useful?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is from my experience being a mentee and a mentor:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Speak of what is essential at the moment</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Don’t be afraid to be weak</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Learn from professional hints and tips</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Ask about the failures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Ask about the inspiration </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Learn from the personal journey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Learn to benefit from the honest feedback </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mentorship is like a mirror, it helps to clarify something that we cannot really see in ourselves and what we do. And it’s only up to us how much time and efforts we invest into it. The more we do, the more we get.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-24229377247166387452019-07-07T20:29:00.000+02:002019-07-07T20:29:57.586+02:00Classism in evaluation design<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Individual interviews for "important persons", focus groups for "beneficiaries", right? Wrong!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These days I have been reviewing evaluations of projects supporting survivors of traumatising human rights violations in countries that are not quite at peace, or even still at war. One would think that in such circumstances, evaluators would be particularly respectful and careful with their interlocutors, avoiding questions and situations that would make them feel uncomfortable, trigger difficult emotions or cause a resurgence of their trauma. In some cases, the opposite is true: </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some evaluators asked people to talk about their traumatising experience in group discussions with five to ten persons - neighbours or strangers, people who were brought together in a one-off two-to-three-hour meeting only because the evaluators needed data from "beneficiaries". To obtain data from project managers or local officials, the same evaluators tended to prefer individual interviews. I see an <b>implicit message</b> here: People in positions of power deserve more individual attention than simple users of project services. Is that really what we want, when we evaluate projects that are supposed to strengthen people's confidence and empower them to transform their lives, contribute to change in their societies and make this world a better one?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem is not unique to human rights and service-related projects. I have seen evaluations of rural development programmes where "beneficiaries" were mainly interviewed in groups - for instance, in the convenient setting of an agricultural extension class. It is not only an issue of respect, or lack thereof; it is also a methodological problem. In group interviews, people speak not only to the person who conducts the interview, but also to everybody else who sits in the circle (or around the table). As a result, they are likely to speak in ways and about things they consider acceptable in that group setting (social desirability bias) - not necessarily about their true thoughts and feelings. Focus group discussions are not a good instrument to learn about personal thoughts and experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But they can be an excellent instrument for questions that are less personal, for instance, to map actors in a field the participants are familiar with, to learn about local social norms, or to get different experts' views on a certain topic. For instance, when a project is about health services, it can make sense to run focus group discussions with health providers: They can explain the situation in their sector, sketch typical processes, discuss together where exactly the project fits in and what contributions it may have made, and so forth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to come back to the point of respectful interviews, especially when interviewees are survivors of traumatising violations. I did find one excellent example: The researchers designed questionnaires and interview guides that kept people from digging too deeply into difficult memories. They gave survivors a few days to think before they consented to be interviewed, and offered them the choice of the interview setting - a counselling centre, for instance, or a secluded hotel in a pleasant area. They provided breaks and meals, a couple of nights' accommodation if needed, as well as a post-interview check-out with a psychologist - all that to make sure any distress caused by the interview could be dealt with. Coincidentally, the researchers worked in a European country. There is no reason why one shouldn't work that way in Africa or Asia, is there?</span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-86707679799012071622019-06-17T11:54:00.001+02:002019-07-07T19:31:04.840+02:00Small group work - keep it fresh and productive!<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is the early afternoon of the second workshop day;
the participants are a bit drowsy from a rich lunch; messages have piled up in
their smartphones and some people would prefer to deal with those rather than
discussing strategy or whatever the workshop is about. Small group work is
on the workshop plan. What can you do to keep it lively and productive?</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#1 Avoid the classical approach of ushering groups of
six to twelve persons into separate rooms ("break-out rooms"): They’ll
lose at least five minutes on the way there and then again on
the way back. To make matters worse, some participants will disappear into the
corridors to attend to their smartphones and return when it is too late for
productive involvement in group work. Go for <b>buzz groups</b> instead: Everybody
stays in the same large room (count some three square metres per participant), set up “world café” style, with participants clustered around round
or square tables. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#2 <b>Set rules</b> for the small groups to create an
effective thinking environment (see Nancy Kline’s highly commendable book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time to Think</i>). One
easy way is to insist on using a talking stick/ball/fluffy toy that every
participant must hold at least once and speak, before anyone gets a second turn
to speak. It is an excellent way to keep the group from being monopolised by a couple of big talkers. Also, put a clock
on the table and have participants limit their verbal interventions to a
maximum of three minutes each.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#3 </span></span>Write each group's assignment on a big piece of paper that stays with the group. <b>Provide the groups with tools </b>that help them structure their presentation. For instance, if the assignment is to map
stakeholders, you can draw one of the common models on a flip chart (e.g. power/interest
grid, Lewin’s force field analysis, or concentric circles
to designate core/direct/indirect stakeholders, to name but a few options) and ask participants to
complete it together. Also, inviting participants to compile “do’s and don’ts” can work well with
group work that is about distilling lessons from experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">#4 If all groups are supposed to work on the
same question, or on questions that converge into a bigger picture, consider
using the <a href="http://www.ica-international.org/" target="_blank">Institute of Cultural Affairs’</a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Technology
of Participation (ToP). </i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">A key feature of this approach is the rapid succession of <b>individual, small
group and plenary reflection</b> and visualisation in a way that enables everyone
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#5 For fresh afternoon sessions, avoid heavy (buffet) lunches, make sure there is some <b>dayligh</b>t in the room, and provide all small groups with plenty of <b>water</b>, coffee/tee and something to nibble on. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#6 Last but not least: <b>Stay engaged as a facilitator</b>! Monitor the groups' work, nudge them back to the question and the agreed group process if they stray from it, and be there to answer questions. Never ever dive into your smartphone while facilitating a workshop! Use the break time only.</span></span></div>
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Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-5930001131473729552019-05-17T13:16:00.001+02:002019-05-17T13:16:20.930+02:00Two or three reasons why two are better than one<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evaluations come in many shapes and sizes. I have led multidisciplinary teams in multi-year assignments, and carried out smaller assignments all by myself. Last year was a lucky year, because most of my work happened in one of my favourite configurations: <b>the tandem or duo - </b>as in two competent persons with complementary or partly overlapping skills and knowledge working together as evaluators on an equal or near-equal footing. Two evaluators working together - even if one of them participates for a shorter spell of time than her colleague - means so much more than the sum of two persons' capacities. <a name='more'></a></span><div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, two persons can carry out more work than one, and two pairs of eyes and ears perceive more than one. More importantly, two different persons are likely to interpret data differently, from their different perspectives. In my recent tandem assignments, we - the two evaluators - discussed our findings every day when we worked in the same location. At times we'd split for a few days; in those cases, we'd exchange via the phone or a secure messenger service at least twice a week. The tandem approach forces both evaluators to analyse, distil first findings and develop conclusions throughout the evaluation process. Conversely, when you're on your own, you must keep your impressions to yourself (confidentiality in evaluation!). On lonely evenings in hotels far from home, it can be hard to overcome the fatigue at the end of busy days to study the day's notes - for a tandem, this routine is much more inspiring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you evaluate across countries and/or cultures, it makes sense to work in tandems that combine different backgrounds and social identities, so that "insider" and "outsider" perceptions and interpretations can challenge each other and lead to stronger findings. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Objectivity" in evaluation is a lofty goal - a team of two might not attain it, but at least, the inter-subjective setup helps keeping individual bias in check.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conversely, when I work as a sole elevator, all I can do is look at my own notes and apply a good dose of self-reflection to question my own findings. I can only be in one place at a time and must juggle interviewing, facilitating group discussions and note-taking. I touch-type while carrying out interviews, a mentally and physically strenuous habit - but a necessary one, because often, resources for transcribing recorded interviews are not part of the evaluation budget. When I write up my conclusions and recommendations, there is no peer to review them. In short, it is a tough, lonely exercise that potentially yields less robust results than an evaluation by a tandem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still, my clients appear to be very happy with the evaluations I carry out by myself. But even where resources are tight, I recommend setting up tandems - or at least, some peer review process independent from the client and the evaluand - for the evaluation. Even a couple of extra days with a suitable colleague can turbo-charge the robustness of an evaluation's findings and recommendations.</span></div>
Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-90470064967360256912019-04-13T17:31:00.002+02:002019-04-13T17:31:54.647+02:00Is there a way to measure efficiency in human rights work?<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmin-rocha-1233133/" target="_blank">Jasmin Rocha</a> and I reflect on measuring efficiency in human rights programmes in a new guest post on Zenda Ofir's evaluation blog. Have a look <a href="http://zendaofir.com/efficiency-criterion/" target="_blank">here</a> - and enjoy browsing!</span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-26022760133560203992019-03-16T15:27:00.003+01:002019-03-16T15:27:45.843+01:00Why internal evaluations need external perspectives<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Internal evaluation can be an excellent way to check the quality of one's work, to track progress (in programmes or projects, for instance) and to gather information for management decisions and longer-term learning. To make the most of such exercises, they should go beyond self-reflection. Especially for small to medium-sized teams or organisations, sitting around a table and contemplating one's strengths and weaknesses, as well as successes and failures, is a good start, but just not enough.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Things you can do to gather more insights and make the most of them:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you<b> regularly collect and document information from partner organisations, clients or other people involved in or affected by your work, use it!</b> Use it to find out whether the activities you and your partners carry out do - or are likely to - contribute to the goals you pursue. Use it also to examine - or read between the lines - how the quality of your organisation's work is perceived.<br />You can also bring such information to a <b>"data party" </b>with people outside your organisation - for instance, some of those who are supposed to benefit from your projects, or else external specialists in the field you work in. The idea is to make sense of the information from your projects/activities together, every participant with their own perspective. (Obviously, you will have to make sure data are sufficiently aggregated and anonymised so as to avoid violating anybody's privacy.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />If you don't continuously gather information from those involved in your projects/activities, then you can carry out your internal reflection in stages - for instance, (1) you decide together which questions (a handful at most!) your internal evaluation should answer, and (2) then you allow for a few week's time to gather information - for instance, in conversations with stakeholders and external persons, just like an external consultant would do in a "qualitative" evaluation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you don't have time for that, you can replace item (2) by a <b>consultation bringing together people who are directly involved or affected by your work</b>. Here, external facilitation can help create an atmosphere and a work flow that enables everyone to openly share their experience and their perceptions of your organisation's work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both approaches take more time than a simple half-day workshop of navel-gazing. There is nothing wrong with workshops or short retreats - any break from a busy work routine can be beneficial. But involving others will multiply your chances to gather precious new insights. Try it out!</span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-64864363243378659882019-02-20T09:35:00.000+01:002019-02-20T11:04:00.812+01:00Quick evaluation: What a difference a couple of days make!<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know those evaluations that come with dozens of questions on a whole complicated international development programme (or even set of programmes), to be answered within one week of desk work, one week on-site and one week to tie it all up? They are still around and they are not about to disappear. I used to hate them: The time frame makes it near-impossible to draw reasonably rigorous samples of respondents (for interviews or for a survey) and there is so little you can do and see in a week at the programme site. What can an outsider find out in one week that an insider doesn't know yet? After having worked on a couple of "quick evaluations" in recent months, I have adopted a milder stance. They can generate useful insights. But how? Here are a few tips.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is written from an evaluator's perspective, but I address those who commission evaluations, too: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cluster and prioritise the questions <b>and draw a sample of projects</b>, in dialogue with the client. </span></b><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This may sound banal - but anyone who has tried knows how hard it can be to get people to shed some questions. Even with a clear sense of priority, you won't get "scientific evidence" within that time frame, but the fewer questions you work on, the deeper you can go. Gathering data against, say, 30 evaluation questions on 40 projects run by 30 organisations would mean asking thousands of questions, also because it is not enough to gather data from just one source per project. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But you can fit only about ten questions into an hour's semi-structured interview or a couple of dozens into a ten-to-fifteen-minute standardised questionnaire. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Work in tandems!</b> Well-informed external opinions are even more valuable if they come from more than one person. In two of "my" recent quick evaluations, I - the evaluation specialist - was paired up with a regional specialist. We did some work together, some in parallel, and discussed our findings every day - the result has been so much richer than what a single consultant can produce in so little time. If the budget does not allow for joint field work, you can still organise a desk-based peer review which would mean just an extra couple of days' honoraria.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Put in three more days on site.</b> Whatever the original "quick" time frame is, three more days make a huge difference. You need a day for inception on-site and at least a day, better two, to analyse initial findings and discuss them with the people who run the programme. That will take two to three days off your week - adding just three days to the overall exercise will double the time for data gathering and analysis.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Mix your methods</b>, even if there is no time for "proper" sampling and statistics. If your main instruments are interviews and group discussions, look at the budgets and the spending as well - seeing where the money goes tends to yield valuable insights, too.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And, dear consultant, keep a close watch on the time you spend on quick evaluations. I think it is OK to put in some unpaid hours. But not days or weeks. </span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4177297280575295732.post-91489065720306934592019-01-08T18:13:00.002+01:002019-01-08T18:13:30.743+01:00VEPR Certified<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I995rVpYPTM/XDTaDzn3KaI/AAAAAAAAKGk/1I1drx9-wG0LhauR0xVUDgoy175yb2NAwCLcBGAs/s1600/VEPR%2Bcertified.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="888" height="197" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I995rVpYPTM/XDTaDzn3KaI/AAAAAAAAKGk/1I1drx9-wG0LhauR0xVUDgoy175yb2NAwCLcBGAs/s200/VEPR%2Bcertified.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am delighted to announce that I have been an EES VEPR certified evaluator since autumn 2018. EES stands for <a href="http://www.europeanevaluation.org/" target="_blank">European Evaluation Society</a>, VEPR for <a href="http://www.europeanevaluation.org/community/thematic-working-groups/twg-4-professionalization-evaluation/voluntary-evaluator-peer" target="_blank">Voluntary Evaluator Peer Review </a>- a stringent process whereby the evaluator, in cooperation with two experienced international colleagues, identifies own capacities and weaknesses (and ways to deal with the latter) in a documented dialogue that spans over several weeks</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Join the EES and try out the process, it really helps to know and hone your assets!</span>Michaela Raabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06714040184416432317noreply@blogger.com