These notes are a resource for putting ActionAid's new Accountability, Learning and Planning System (ALPS) into practice. It is intended for use not only by ActionAid staff but also, where appropriate, by partner organisation staff. The notes assist in considering the implications and thus practical application of ALPS. An important feature is the inclusion of examples of processes to enable efficient utilisation of ALPS; by regularly updating this resource and constructing a corresponding website for interaction, staff will be invited to contribute by identifying what has and what has not worked well, in order to facilitate an efficient system of processes integral to ALPS.
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Con el aumento en las oportunidades para promover una mayor participación en el desarrollo, crece también el reconocimiento de que el monitoreo y la evaluación deben ser participativos. Este documento presenta una revisión documental de experiencias de monitoreo y evaluación participativos (M&EP) realizadas en diversas partes del planeta, en differentes contextos e involucrando a todo tipo de interestados: Organizaciones No-Gubermentales (ONGs), donantes, institutos de investigación, goiernos, organizaciones de pobladores y comunidades. Se presentan también los principios básicos del M&EP, sus aplicaciones con differentes propósitos, asi como una variedad de herramientas y métodos utilizados, incluyendo metodologías de aprendizaje participativo y enfoques más convencionales. Finalemente, se abordan algunos temas claves y retos generales derivados de la información estudiada, y se destacan áreas potenciales para futuras investigaciones.
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Participatory methods and approaches are being adopted by many conservation-development organizations within the Central African sub-region. This paper details some of the limitations and challenges of participatory methods in light of the authors ten years of experience of working for agricultural and conservation organizations in Cameroon. One difficulty encountered is whether participatory processes actually revealed genuine community problems. Often, the true priorities of the community would lie beyond the scope and mandate of one development organization. Another major impediment is the minimal participation of women, whom, even when present at PRA sessions, are limited in participating due to social conventions. In conclusion, the author urges caution in the use of participatory methods and approaches.
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This article describes the evaluation of a reproductive health project in which the external evaluator's main role was to identify the project's information gaps and to propose an evaluation methodology. The Adolescent Reproductive Health Education Project has been working with secondary school students in Zimbabwe since 1997, and in 1998 produced a reproductive health pack called "Auntie Stella". This evaluation took place a year later. The article describes the methodologies used (which included a logical framework and questionnaires), the positive qualities of the evaluation, to what extent the evaluation was participatory, how the concept of defection worked, and issues around affordability and shortcuts. It finishes with comments from the staff "with hindsight", and conclusions.
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The Participatory Approaches Learning Study (PALS) examined the potential for increasing stakeholder participation in DFID country programmes and at DFID's experience of delivering aid through participatory approaches. Its recommendations include proposals on staff development, on ways to make the Project Cycle Management System more flexible and accountable, and on making participation a stronger characteristic of DFID itself. The two-year research project involved separate studies of four of DFID's geographical departments - DFID-India, DFID-Bangladesh, South East Asia Division, and the Western and North Africa Department, which included India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana, Egypt and Nigeria. This report is a synthesis of the main findings and lessons from each of the geographical studies and includes Operational lessons from PALS, Participation and Project Cycle Management, Training Needs and Participation and Institutionalising Participation.
Reflect (Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community Techniques) was developed as an approach to adult literacy between 1993 and 1995 through field practice in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador. This is the first in a series of reports produced by the International Reflect Circle, CIRAC. It is an attempt to consolidate learning from 13 different external evaluations of Reflect that took place mostly in 2000. The purposes of this review are threefold: À To synthesise and summarise the 13 evaluations, identifying trends in literacy and empowerment outcomes À To identify and classify trends in approaches to evaluation and the indicators used À To draw out some key hypotheses to frame further research/evaluations The report firstly gives summaries of the evaluations. It then goes on to explore lessons and issues arising from Reflect Programmes and then looks at lessons learned from the evaluations. Final sections look at the indicators and guidelines used. Three main recommendations are proposed in the report: À Reflect should be applied in a cross-disciplinary way, across different types of development programmes, not necessarily even with an education bias, be they government or NGO provided À Reflect programmes must develop a culture of evaluation amongst participants À A set of programme pointers are generated which assist in the implementation and successful running of the programme. NB The International Reflect Circle (CIRAC) was set up in March 2000 as a democratic space for Reflect practitioners from diverse organisations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. It seeks to promote solidarity of Reflect practitioners around the world in order to strengthen international exchange and learning and build a wider movement. More details can be found at the CIRAC website: www.reflect-action.org
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This article suggests some steps in the theorization and assessment required to improve and understand the logical framework approach towards learning oriented development evaluation. It addresses the following questions: how should one proceed in assessing a planning and evaluation approach; when and how should an LFA be used; should it look at best normal or worst practice; what should be made of a tool which regularly requires the defences that it needs intelligent and careful use and that its failings are contingent, not inherent; what assumptions can be made about the skills and motivation of the average user? what comparisons can be made with alternative approaches? In conclusion the paper states that LFA should be used with care and sometimes not at all. This approach can usefully encourage thinking about purposes, assumptions and data, but become less helpful as we move from planning to monitoring to evaluation.
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The editorial of this special issue on Children's Participation: evaluating effectiveness discusses the focus of the issue and gives details of the guest editor.
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The overview of this issue on the evaluation of children's participation has its roots in a symposium on 'Children's Participation in Community Settings', which was held in Oslo, Norway in June 2000. The symposium brought together members of the Childwatch International Research Network and the Growing Up in Cities project of the MOST Programme of UNESCO. The overview outlines the Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it relates to the articles, and gives a brief description of each contribution in this edition of PLA notes.
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This article begins by reviewing some of the general issues surrounding the evaluation of participation that emerged from a symposium on Children's Participation in Community Settings held in Norway in June 2000. It then examines opportunities and constraints shaping children's participation, what channels are being created for children to participate in their communities and what form these opportunities usually take. It finishes by reviewing areas of agreement among the symposium members, on qualities that characterise good settings for participation and how evaluation research should be conceptualised.
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This paper presents a range of initiatives the authors are involved in within the field of children's rights and participation. It begins by defining the rights based approach and needs based approach to development and goes on to give details of three projects. The first project is PLAN International Indonesia's training and capacity strengthening for its field staff aimed at promoting a shift towards addressing child rights in its programmes and projects. The paper outlines the tangible benefits for the children and the impact on their lives, for example in family relationships.|The second project is a DFID Innovations Fund research one looking at the ways in which the impacts of development projects on children are addressed in monitoring and evaluation systems, with pilot projects in Nepal and South Africa. It discusses the use of organisational mapping in both these pilot projects and the findings to come out of them|The final case study is about the monitoring and evaluation of the Saying Power Scheme in the UK. Rather than happening at the end of the projects, the monitoring and evaluation process runs parallel to it. The article describes the confidence lines and ôHö method used and concludes with challenges the projects faced
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This paper reflects on issues related to participatory evaluation in the context of child-centred community development and raises questions that it believes community development organisations need to consider. In reflecting on these questions it draws upon the author's experience as technical manager of PLAN International. The focus of the work was mainstreaming the participation of children of different ages into development processes. The paper details basic considerations to guide evaluation and looks at missed opportunities and the importance of shared values. It goes on to consider how evaluation should be built into a project from the beginning and not just considered at the end, and also looks at how to engage all partners and the risk of unintended consequences. Examples are given from Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, El Salvador and India.
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This article looks at the extent youth participation in four evaluation projects. It presents case study data from the projects, two of which were conducted in highly participatory programmes, and two that had little youth participation but had a participatory evaluation process. The first of the projects took place within The Center for Young Women's Development, a youth-run harm reduction programme that employs young homeless women. The second evaluation project focused on the Town Youth Participatory Strategy, a youth-led drop in centre serving low-income Caucasian youth in rural Ottawa. The next was a coalition of youth programmes that had come together to evaluate the juvenile justice system in San Francisco. The final case study focused on a youth drop-in centre serving street children in an urban city in Canada. The article gives details of all the projects and their effect on the young people, with quotes from the young people themselves.
This practical guide published by Save the Children is aimed at all organisations that are looking for ways to consult with children and young people. It can be used for drawing up a consultation strategy: there are checklists and question and answer sections as well as examples of good practice in reference to the British Charter Mark criteria. The manual looks at
- Why children should be consulted?
- The principles and practice of consultation, which includes levels of service impact on children and young people, child protection, first steps and planning checklists.
- Charter Mark criteria for consulting with children and young people: indicators and examples of good practice
- A selection of methods for consulting children and young people, including activities for children and young people
In finishes with details of the Children Charter Mark Award, a summary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and "useful organisations" and "resources" lists.