Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Support Program Final Narrative Report Project ID P2P Project number # 30 Project Title: Institutional and Professional Capacity Building Project between Washington Evaluators (USA) and Central Asian VOPEs Project Managed by: National M&E Network of the Kyrgyz Republic Date of this report January 30, 2015 Focus of the Project: (check all that apply) Advocacy for enabling environment for evaluation Academic courses in evaluation V Strengthening VOPE institutional capacity V Individual members’ evaluation capacities V Capacity to promote equity-focused and gender-sensitive evaluation VOPEs involved: Name and acronym of VOPE Country/Region #1 Washington Evaluators USA #2 Kyrgyz National M&E Network Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) #3 Monitoring and Evaluation Community of Practice (MonEvCoP) of Tajikistan Tajikistan #4 [insert others if more than 4] Project start date Oct 27, 2014 Project end date Mar 30, 2015 Contact person(s) for this project VOPE Contact Person Names Email addresses WE Donna Mertens, PhD [email protected]Kyrgyz VOPE Adema Zholdoshbekova [email protected]Tajik VOPE Farhod Khamidov [email protected]1. What was the purpose of the project? What did the project plan to achieve and how? (Brief description of the project, max 100 words). The Project aimed to transfer the operational and organizational experience of the Washington Evaluators (WE) and American Evaluation Association (AEA) to the Kyrgyz M&E Network and, more widely, to organized and semi-organized VOPEs in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The primary objective was to raise institutional capacity of Central Asian M&E VOPEs in VOPE management issues and professional capacity building. Page 1 EvalPartners P2P Support Program - Final Report
Transcript
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Support Program
Final Narrative Report
Project ID
P2P Project number # 30 Project Title: Institutional and Professional Capacity Building Project between Washington Evaluators
(USA) and Central Asian VOPEs Project Managed by: National M&E Network of the Kyrgyz Republic
Date of this report January 30, 2015 Focus of the Project: (check all that apply)
Advocacy for enabling environment for evaluation Academic courses in evaluation
V Strengthening VOPE institutional capacity V Individual members’ evaluation capacities V Capacity to promote equity-focused and gender-sensitive evaluation
VOPEs involved: Name and acronym of VOPE Country/Region #1 Washington Evaluators USA #2 Kyrgyz National M&E Network Kyrgyz Republic
(Kyrgyzstan) #3 Monitoring and Evaluation Community of Practice
(MonEvCoP) of Tajikistan Tajikistan
#4 [insert others if more
than 4]
Project start date Oct 27, 2014 Project end date Mar 30, 2015
Contact person(s) for this project
VOPE Contact Person Names Email addresses WE Donna Mertens, PhD [email protected]
1. What was the purpose of the project? What did the project plan to achieve and how? (Brief description of the
project, max 100 words). The Project aimed to transfer the operational and organizational experience of the Washington Evaluators (WE) and American Evaluation Association (AEA) to the Kyrgyz M&E Network and, more widely, to organized and semi-organized VOPEs in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The primary objective was to raise institutional capacity of Central Asian M&E VOPEs in VOPE management issues and professional capacity building.
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Two major focal points of the project were 1) institution-building of national VOPEs in Central Asia by learning from the experience of WE and AEA, 2) Evaluation capacity building of local evaluators in transformative mixed methods addressing equity-focused and gender-sensitive evaluation.
2. Did the project achieve what it planned to achieve? Yes, fully / partially / unfortunately, no. 2.a. Please comment on degree of achievement:1 All activities provisioned under the P2P grant have been carried out as planned (institution and professional capacity building activities).
3. Was the project implemented as planned? If there were changes in the planned activities, why they were necessary?
All activities provisioned under the P2P grant have been carried out as planned (institution and professional capacity building activities). See detailed below. • Information and announcement of the workshops was done among Tajikistan’s, Kyrgyzstan’s, Kazakhstan’s, and
Russian VOPEs. • Two activities of the P2P project took place on Dec 8-11, 2014 in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. • Per P2P application Donna Mertens came to Bishkek in December 2014 and delivered a three-day capacity
development workshop (Workshop 1), followed by a one-day network building workshop (Workshop 2) sharing experience of Washington Evaluators and American Evaluation Association (see attached Workshop agenda) and discussion of the EvalYear 2015 and Global Evaluation Agenda.
• The topic of the capacity development workshop per needs assessment of participants prior to development of workshop program was “Evaluation: context, theory of change, design” with a focus on equity based and gender sensitive evaluations. (See Workshop Program).
• Workshop 1 participants included representatives of Kyrgyz Republic’s National M&E Network, Tajikistan’s Evaluation Community of Practice, Russian Evaluation Association, Kazakhstan Evaluation Network, and Washington Evaluators (see attached Photo Progress Report). In addition, participants included regional participants from around Kyrgyz Republic, as well as USAID KREG project M&E officers. Participants included civil society, government (Ministry of Health), and private sector representatives (USAID KREG Project).
• Workshop 1 (covered by simultaneous translation into Russian) was very well received by all participants. • Workshop 2 was delivered on Dec 11, 2014 in Park Hotel Bishkek, and was attended by 80% of Workshop 1
participants and additionally by representatives of the Government Office of the Kyrgyz Republic (Mr. Kubat Ukaev), Member of National Parliament (Mrs. Natalia Nikitenko) (see attached Photo Progress Report), and core management group of the Kyrgyz Republic National M&E Network.
• A session of Workshop 2 was dedicated to discussion of the EvalYear 2015 and the Global Evaluation Agenda and the candle lighting ceremony after which regional VOPE took the evaluation torches to their countries.
• While all respective VOPEs met in Bishkek, relevant participants discussed possible dates for the visit of Central Asian VOPE representatives to Washington Evaluators sites.
• After the workshops participants provided their unanimously positive feedback, shared ideas on what they learned, and were encouraged to share workshop materials within their respective networks, organizations, and partners. All participants received electronic workshop materials in English and Russian, and Donna Mertens’ contact information for follow-up questions.
• After completion of the workshops Donna Mertens has provided written materials on AEA policies, structures, management schemes, etc. as part of the questions-answers activities on the structure of AEA and activities that was shared among all involved VOPEs.
4. What are the main lessons learned from the experience of this project that you would like to share with other VOPEs?
1 Please limit your responses to this and other questions to no more than 500 words each.
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• Select P2P partners carefully, reliable partners with whom good relationship has been established before the P2P
project ensure project success; • Dedicate staff time to manage the P2P project and treat it just as any other project to ensure that milestones are
accomplished and results are produced; • Spread information about the P2P project early and widely in the relevant M&E community; • Use the P2P project as a platform and opportunity to cover other VOPE agenda items and bring national and regional
stakeholders together; • P2P is an excellent networking opportunity! • Kyrgyz M&E Network’s membership increased significantly after the P2P project (more requests for membership, more
Facebook page likes);
5. Are there plans to continue or expand collaboration started under the project? If so, please describe.
Yes, the P2P project served as a basis for AEA grant that will fund a visit of Central Asian VOPEs to Washington DC. Representatives of Washington Evaluators, Central Asian and Russian VOPEs who attended the workshops have established good working relationships since the P2P activities served as excellent networking events. The project helped to create a platform for stronger national and regional cooperation on M&E issues.
6. Annexes:
1) Photo report 2) List of participants
ANNEX 1. PHOTO REPORT
Donna Mertens, Washington Evaluators representative, presenting on Day 2 of Capacity Development Workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 9, 2014.
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3) Donna Mertens, Washington Evaluators representative, presenting on Day 2 of Capacity Development Workshop in
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 9, 2014.
4) Kyrgyz Parliamentarian, Mrs Natalia Nikitenko during the Network Building Event and discussion of the EvalYear.
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 11, 2014
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5) OSCE representative, Indira Arunova, WE representative, Donna Mertens, and Kyrgyz M&E Network representative, Tatiana Tretiakova, during the candle lighting ceremony after discussion of the EvalYear and Global Evaluation Agenda, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 11, 2014./
6) Candle lighting ceremony after discussion of the EvalYear and Global Evaluation Agenda, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 11, 2014. Participants: Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Washington Evaluators VOPE representatives; Kyrgyz Republic Government Office, Member of National Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic, UNDP, USAID, Kyrgyz Republic civil society representatives.
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7) Tatiana Tretiakova, Coordinator of Kyrgyz Republic’s VOPE making presentation on Global Evaluation Agenda. Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, Dec 11, 2014
ANNEX 2. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
# Last name, first name Position, organization
Participants – Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia
1. Bazidova Zarina Chairman of Panorama Public Foundation, Tajikistan
2. Nazirov Alisher Project Manager, UNDP-UNEP Poverty and Environment Initiative, Tajikistan
3. Beketova Gulmira Director, Iris Regional Public Association, Kazakhstan
