Date post: | 29-Oct-2014 |
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Business |
Upload: | aspeninstitute |
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Overview
Key messages
Culture of advocacy and culture of evaluation both reflect donor influences and bias
Monitoring and evaluation should be used to test assumptions about how change happens in political, social and economic contexts, build capacity and ensure effective strategies
Monitoring is an entry point for demonstrating the utility of evaluation practices to advocacy
Advocacy evaluation anywhere
Timeframe of change
Dynamic and fluid vs. planful and deliberate
Disconnect between action and effect
Flotillas, coalitions and partnerships
Policy change and actual change
Influencing variables in developing country advocacy and evaluation Exaggerated influence of international
actors on advocacy policy and processes in developing countries
Shift from global to country-level change and systems thinking
Applicability of policy and social change theory to developing country context
Case study: Reproductive health providers as advocates Context
Conservative state in Northern Nigeria
Security risk to providers
Donor mandate: service coverage; advocacy in direct service to contraceptive prevalence
M&E culture: strong culture of monitoring outputs for accountability
Lessons Learned
Evaluation identified deeper questions about when advocacy is making a difference
Advocacy to address bottlenecks and barriers contributed to longer-term change, broader systems change, sustainability
Data, data everywhere
Case study: Brave Coalition, Lost Opportunity Context Audacious policy
goal Brilliant, brave
coalition Coordinated, logic
model-based planning
Limited policy change experience, connections
Miscalculations, misaligned strategies
Lessons Learned Static planning tool
reinforced rigidity Effective coalition
work required cross-sector monitoring
Model of policy change works in U.S., fell apart post-election violence
Coalition monitoring and reporting tool
Opportunities
Ensure positive donor influence on advocacy and culture of evaluation Allow for more
expansive definitions of success
Build on existing development trends Integrate and measure
systems strengthening Development of
coalitions and networks as agents of change
Opportunities
Monitoring for learning Use monitoring as an entry point for
demonstrating the utility of evaluation practices to advocacy.
Develop useful tools and approaches, and the capacity to use them for real-time learning in dynamic advocacy environments.
Improve evidence base for policy change Research, map theories of change Build a stronger evidence base for advocacy
Questions for Discussion
1. What are some particular challenges you’ve experience supporting advocacy evaluation?
2. Do you see tensions between M&E for accountability and for learning?