Measuring people power
MobLab has carried out a global study on how to measure people power – mobilising publics for campaigns and other initiatives. Here is an extract of the key takeaways
:
” key takeaways
For changemakers, if you’re not already measuring depth of supporter relationships and engagement (vs total numbers, or breadth), this report highlights a few ways to get started. Whether in a grassroots group, social movement, or an established NGO, tracking how committed people are to your mission (and to one another) and facilitating deeper relationships can be a big step forward.
For organisational leaders, this report is an urgent call to support cultures that are curious, innovative, and supporter- or people-centred. The results also clarified the importance of investing in staff and resources needed to build relationships with volunteers, grassroots, and community groups. The majority of the surveyed individuals found the very effort of measuring people power shifted and informed both tactics and strategy, guided day-to-day decision making, and was used to evaluate the past; essentially, to show them what was working and what wasn’t.
For funders, the results underscore the need to support organisations, groups and movements by investing in organising and power building, which don’t come with the same attractive metrics that we typically see in fundraising and digital advocacy. Funders should support both the implementation of sustained organising and supporter relationship building (outside of short term programme objectives) and ongoing development and experimentation in power building or “depth” metrics.”
CART principles for monitoring
Innovations for Poverty Action have developed some useful guidance on activity monitoring and evaluation based on their own CART principles: credible, actionable, responsible, and transportable (see summary graphic below).
Particularly useful for those interested in monitoring which is an issue many organisations find challenging. Read more here>>
Evaluation during COVID19 – infographic
Here an informative infographic from UNDP independent evaluation office on evaluation during COVID19 (view the pdf version here).
Evaluation and COVID19
There have been many useful and interesting articles on how evaluation can adapt and cope with the current COVID19 pandemic. Here is a collection of what I’ve found to date:
Practical tools/advice:
Conducting phone-based surveys during COVID 2019
A quick primer on running online events and meetings
Covid-19 crisis: how to adapt your data collection for monitoring and accountability
Think pieces:
Zenda Ofir: Evaluation in times of COVID19 outbreak
World Bank: Conducting evaluations in times of COVID-19
Chris Lysy: The Evaluation Mindset: Evaluation in a Crisis
M Q Patton: Evaluation Implications of the Coronavirus Global Health Pandemic Emergency
Integrating communications in evaluation – presentation slides
Earlier this year I gave a presentation on “integrating communications in evaluation” and I am now happy to share the presentation slides of the event:
Advocacy evaluation resources
Here is a non-exhaustive list of some advocacy evaluation resources available online (n.b. most links will take you directly to a PDF document).
Theory of change:
Julia Coffman & Tanya Beer (2015), The Advocacy Strategy Framework; A tool for articulating an advocacy theory of change
UNICEF (2014), Theory of change; methodological briefs
Advocacy monitoring and evaluation methods/approaches:
Robin Kane et al (2017), Contribution Analysis in Policy Work; Assessing Advocacy’s Influence
Harvard Family Research Project (2009), A User’s Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning
Julia Coffman (2019), Current Advocacy Evaluation Practice, Center for Evaluation Innovation.
Julia Coffman and Ehren Reed (2019), Unique Methods in Advocacy Evaluation
Oxfam, Process Tracing – Draft Protocol
Guidelines:
CARE (2018), Advocacy and Influencing MEL Guidance
UNICEF, Monitoring and evaluating advocacy; companion to the advocacy toolkit
ODI (2014), Monitoring and evaluation of policy influence and advocacy
Communicating monitoring and evaluation results:
Glenn O’Neil (2017), A Guide: Integrating Communication in Evaluation
CDC (2013), Evaluation Reporting: A Guide to Help Ensure Use of Evaluation Findings
“Think pieces” on advocacy evaluation:
Examples of advocacy evaluation reports:
UNHCR (2019), Evaluation of Effectiveness and Relevance of Advocacy Approaches in Europe
Oxfam International (2013), Evaluation of global communications campaign GROW
Webinar: How do Not-For-Profit organizations measure the results of their advocacy?
Join me for this webinar on Thursday 20th February 2020 at 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST to learn how Not-For-Profits are measuring the results of their advocacy and what your organization can learn and do in this direction.
The webinar will be moderated by AMEC NFP Group co-chair Natalia Vaccarezza of UNICEF and feature Chris Stalker, Senior Advisor Policy & Campaigns at Oxfam America and myself – Glenn O’Neil, Founder of Owl RE research and evaluation consultancy.
Participants will gain insight using practical examples on:
-Challenges commonly faced in advocacy evaluation and possible solutions
-Trends in the field of advocacy evaluation
-Tools and tactics for effectively measuring advocacy results
Recommended actions for integrating evaluation and measurement in advocacy of NFPs
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.
New and better evaluation criteria
The OECD/DAC evaluation criteria – the main guidance used for most evaluations has been revised. Following a broad consultation, the revised criteria have been published (pdf).
The main changes are the addition of a new criterion: Coherence; a better explanation of how to use the criteria; and a recognition that the criteria are used across many sectors and not only for the development sector. The explanatory document (pdf) is well worth a read.
Communication evaluation measurement month
November is communication evaluation measurement month! AMEC – the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication and its members and partners are hosting many events – online and in-person globally – check out the calendar >> 
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