Posts filed under ‘Evaluation use’
Event: Integrating communications in evaluation – 11h00 – 30 January 2020 ILO, Geneva
For those in Geneva region and interested in communications and evaluation – I will be making a presentation in January 2020, read more:
The Evaluation Office of the International Labour Organization invites you to a presentation by Glenn O’Neil
. The topic of Dr O’Neil’s presentation will be Integrating communications in evaluation.
Communications is an important aspect of evaluation; it has been said that without communications, evaluation would not be possible.
Evaluation commissioners and evaluators are already communicating – but is communications being used optimally to support the evaluation process? In this presentation, Dr O’Neil will challenge the assumptions of how communications “works” for evaluations and propose solutions based on his experience as both a communicator and evaluator, backed up by communication practice and theory.
Dr O’Neil is founder of Owl RE, evaluation and research consultancy, Geneva. Since 15 years, he has led over 100 evaluations and reviews for some 40 organizations, including UN agencies, NGOs, foundations and governments. Dr O’Neil was previously a professional communicator in the non-profit sector and has produced his own guide on Integrating Communications in the Evaluation Process (pdf).
The event will take place from 11:00-12:00 on Thursday 30 January in the ILO Library on R2 (main floor). After the presentation, there will be a networking lunch (at your own expense) in the ILO cafeteria.
No need to register – please come to the ILO reception at 10:50 and ask for Craig Russon of the ILO Evaluation Office.
A Guide: Integrating Communication in Evaluation
I’ve put together this guide for anyone who wants to learn how communication can more effectively support evaluation: evaluation consultants, communication consultants, evaluation commissioners and programme/project staff participating in evaluations.
New article: Pathways to use of campaigns’ evaluation findings
I’m very happy to share with you an article I co-authored – for those interested in campaigning, evaluation and evaluation use:
Highlights
- A categorization of six pathways to evaluation use is proposed.
- Evaluation use occurred slightly more non-linear than linear.
- Evaluation use was mostly unexpected.
- Overall meaning assigned to evaluation was linked to frequency of evaluation occurring.
- Evaluation use contributing to change was often indirect and not simple.
Abstract
This article presents a study on the pathways and processes regarding the use of evaluation findings of communication campaigns from two international organizations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Several years after the completion of the campaigns and their evaluations, our research identified 28 instances of use and six instances of non-use of the evaluation results, of which the large majority being surprising in nature. Results showed that evaluation use facilitated formal and informal changes at the individual and the organizational level; and, this pattern occurred in a predominantly non-linear fashion, interconnected and overlapping, while gradually decreasing in time and space. Evaluation use was mostly unpredictable, which reflected how meanings are constructed by staff members, as they adjusted and interpreted the findings in opportunistic ways.
Use and value of evaluations
What is the value and use of evaluations is a commonly asked question from many funding or commissioning evaluations. So of interest is that the Hewlett Foundation has just carried out an interesting study on the use and value of the evaluations they carry out. Some of their key findings were:
- Evaluation quality has improved over time
- Spending on evaluation has nearly doubled
- Higher-quality evaluations cost more
- Evaluations are being shared more than in the past, but there’s room to improve
- Evaluations are valuable and used in multiple ways
On this last finding, they provide the following breakdown on evaluation use- interesting to see that only 3% of evaluations had “no use” – good news for evaluation!
Read more about the study here>>
Together with the Centre for Evaluation Innovation, the Hewlett Foundation is holding a free webinar on the study – April 19, 2018 2:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada) – Register here>>
Use of evaluation findings; types and influences
This month I gave presentation on “evaluation findings – types and influences” at the Swiss national health promotion conference. Some of the key points I raised were:
- Use may not be instrumental and direct as expected
- Stakeholder involvement is critical to use
- Organisations can influence evaluation use
- Use can be unpredictable, opportunistic & unexpected
Curious? View my slides below!
New report: Evaluation Capacity and Practice in the US Nonprofit Sector
A very interesting report is just out from the Innovation Network on the Evaluation Capacity and Practice in the US Nonprofit Sector (pdf).
Here are some excerpts on resources and evaluation:
- 99% of organisations have someone responsible for evaluation
- 84% of organisations spend less than 5% on evaluation
- 16% spend zero on evaluation (!)
There are also more interesting findings on evaluation use and barriers/supporting factors for evaluation – view the report here (pdf)>>
New resource: Evaluation of Humanitarian Action Guide
ALNAP has recently released their Evaluation of Humanitarian Action Guide.
The guide was six years in the making and contains detailed advice and tips on evaluating humanitarian action. Even if your focus is not on evaluating humanitarian activities, Chapter 17 on Communicating and Reporting Findings and Results is well worth a read.
New UN SG: “we need a culture of evaluation”
The new United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his “audition” speech highlights evaluation, saying:
“We need a culture of evaluation – independent and real time evaluation with full transparency”
Couldn’t agree more! Watch below at about 2.50 minutes…
Tracking Use of Campaign Evaluation Findings
This week I made a presentation at the European Evaluation Society conference on a tracking study on the use of campaign evaluation (that I had carried out). For those interested in this subject, my slides are here for your consumption!
Five tips to make your evaluation more influential
Here is a useful article from the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank. They highlight five tips to make your evaluation more influential as illustrated in the infographic below. I certainly agree with all the tips; I’d just add that influence may not be immediate and direct; it may take for some years to manifest itself and often in unexpected ways (to be explained in a future post!)
intelligent measurement 