Third Announcement Conference Overvie · 2015-09-22 · No. Workshop Title Brief Workshop...

Third Announcement Conference Overview

CONFERENCEUSING EVALUATION TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES

5TH BIENNIAL

INTRODUCTIONThe organisers of the 5th Biennial South African Monitoring & Evaluation Association (SAMEA) Conference take pleasure in inviting you to partake in what will be the premier Monitoring & Evaluation event in South Africa and the domestic culmination of the International Year of Evaluation 2015.

The theme for this year’s conference is: Using evaluation to improve people’s lives.

The conference is preceded by two and a half days of capacity building workshops presented by local and international experts on contemporary evaluation topics, approaches and methods from beginner to advanced level. There are a record 19 workshops on offer, with session topics ranging from the development of better terms of reference for evaluation, to culture in evaluation, to systems thinking, innovation and so much more. Please take the time to read over the accompanying workshop offering in detail and make sure to sign-up soon since many workshops reach capacity quickly!

The SAMEA Conference is the flagship of an exciting year of domestic International Year of Evaluation (IYE) events. As the conference submissions of our members and international colleagues indicate, 2015 has been a great year for the development of our growing M&E community. With over 100 oral presentations accepted for the conference, we expect some excellent debates and engagements on some of the most pressing issues facing the M&E community.

The conference programme commences on Wednesday, 14 October at 14:00 with the welcome address by Minister of Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation, Jeff Radebe. This will kick off a program filled with some of the best local academics, evaluators, activists and international guests (see profiles later in this announcement). And be sure not to miss out on the launch of the African Evaluation Journal that evening!

Prof Richard Levin

On Thursday, 15 October, conference participants will have to choose between a series of conference streams, coordinated by some of South Africa’s finest M&E practitioners and commissioners, which include:

• ‘Made in Africa’ Evaluations• Public sector M&E• M&E advocacy and conveying results• Evaluation basics and revisiting• Managing for impact in the private sector• Technology for M&E• Discussing evaluator professionalisation• Connecting evaluators and evaluation futures

The streams will run over the course of two days and provide a platform to showcase the best of local M&E practice, work and panel discussions. Thursday night also marks SAMEA’s Annual General Meeting and the announcement of newly elected Board members.

As the conference approaches don’t forget to register before the early –bird deadline of 11 September to ensure discounts on conference fees for members and non-members alike!

We look forward to welcoming you at the 5th Biennial SAMEA conference.

Prof Richard LevinSAMEA Chairperson

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPSThe SAMEA 5th Biennial Pre-Conference Capacity Building Workshop Series consist of a selection of 19 different workshops on offer to the public over the span of 2 ½ days, across a broad range of topics, delivered by international and local experts, and of varying durations.

The following is a list of conference workshops in order of occurrence and duration. A summary of each workshop is also offered below and followed with lengthier descriptions. Please make sure to take note of the level and dates of the workshops.

We invite you to participate in any of the following workshops:

No Workshop Title Presenter Organisation Level Dates

1 Utilization of evaluations Dr Laura Arnston and Virginia Lamprecht

USAID All levels 2 Days (12-13 Oct)

2 Institutionalizing Development Outcome Management through a Standardized Logic Model Approach

Sandiran (Sandi) Premakanthan

Symbiotic International Consulting Services (SICS)

All levels 2 Days (12-13 Oct)

3 Evaluations of Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Programs

Altin Ilirjani & Aaron J. Abbarno

USAID Intermediate - Advanced

2 Days (12-13 Oct)

4 M&E systems for use Dr Marlene Roefs Centre for Develop. Innovation (CDI), Wageningen University, Netherlands

Intermediate - Advanced

2 Days (12-13 Oct)

5 Theory of Change Capacity Building

Nana Davies Southern Hemisphere

Beginner - Intermediate

1 Day (12 Oct)

6 Challenges in evaluating sustainable development

Rob van den Berg

IDEAS (President) Intermediate 1 Day (12 Oct)

7 How to practically implement the DCED Standard

Noel Blais Verrinder

Genesis Analytics Beginner - Intermediate

1 Day (12 Oct)

8 Developing an evaluation terms of reference (TOR) and evaluation management plan

Dr Kevin Kelly Strategic Evaluation, Advisory and Development Consulting (SEAD)


1 Day (12 Oct)

9 Developmental Evaluation: Applying Systems Thinking and Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use

Kate McKegg & Michael Quinn Patton (virtually)

ANZEA and AEA Intermediate 1 Day(13 Oct)

No Workshop Title Presenter Organisation Level Dates

10 Culture Matters: The Essential Art of Integrating Culture in Context into M&E

Dr Zenda Ofir Evalnet Intermediate - Advanced

1 Day(13 Oct)

11 An introduction to Equity Focussed, Human Rights and Gender Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation

Adeline Sibanda & Madri Jansen van Rensburg

Africa Gender and Development Evaluators


1 Day(13 Oct)

12 Innovations in Evaluation Patricia Rogers BetterEvaluation/Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Intermediate 1 Day(13 Oct)

13 Theory of Change as a programme design and evaluation tool – some practical lessons

Gordon Freer & Sebastian Lemire

Independent Consultant and University of California, Los Angeles

Intermediate ½ Day (14 Oct)

14 An Introduction to Randomised Impact Evaluations

Kathryn McDermottChristiaan Endres

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab - Africa (J-PAL)

All levels ½ Day (14 Oct)

15 Holistic data analysis for stakeholder groups

Dr Ruth Orbach, Senior Monitoring and Evalua&on Advisor

CARE Canada - POWER Africa programme


½ Day (14 Oct)

16 Building an M&E system anchored in good programming

Dr Edward Addai UNICEF Intermediate - Advanced

½ Day (14 Oct)

17 A crash course to address the measurement perceptions for corporate social investment (CSI)programmes

Mervyan Konjore Measure Value Beginner - Intermediate

½ Day (14 Oct)

18 Communication for evaluators Nicola Theunissen

Khulisa Management Services

All levels ½ Day (14 Oct)

19 Collaborative implementation of the NDP: Using PPP Evaluation to Improve People’s Lives ?

Bill Sewell People and Performance


½ Day (14 Oct)

The Costs of the Workshops are as follows:

2 days workshops for SAMEA members: R 3 000.002 days workshops for SAMEA non-members: R 3 300.001 day workshops for SAMEA members: R 1 500.001 day workshops for SAMEA non-members: R 1 650.00½ day workshops for SAMEA members: R 800.00½ day workshops for SAMEA non-members: R 900.00

You may Register for the Workshops and Conference at www.sameaconference.co.za

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS (CONTINUED)

No. Workshop Title Brief Workshop Description

1 Utilization of evaluations The workshop on the Utilization of Evaluations will address key questions across the three stages of evaluation; planning, completion, and use. By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained an understanding of: how evaluation commissioners can ensure more useful evaluation reports through stronger evaluation statements of work; and how to improve on the utilization of evaluation findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

2 Institutionalizing Development Outcome Management through a Standardized Logic Model Approach

The workshop will benefit all practitioners, novice and experienced evaluators, academics, program/project managers and staff engaged in planning, developing and implementing performance results based management control systems. Several examples, exercises and case studies will be used to illustrate and support the main learning objective of the workshop of how to develop logic models using a standardized logic model approach and a performance measurement strategy for Outcome Management.

3 Evaluations of Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Programs

This workshop will cover the basics of impact evaluation design and use as they apply to DRG Programs. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to (1) define “counterfactual”; (2) explain strategies for developing counterfactuals; (3) recognize common problems for IEs and sources of these problems in the democracy-aid value-chain; (4) discuss strategies for mitigating these challenges at planning, implementation and analysis stages. Participants will become familiar with theories of change underlying DRG programs and examples of real DRG impact evaluations will demonstrate how testing these theories can improve DRG assistance.

4 M&E systems for use The workshop aims to assist participants in developing and implementing M&E systems that support utilisation of M&E findings and processes. It focuses on how to design and implement M&E systems of and for complex interventions and organisations (and not so much on specific approaches and methods that may be employed in M&E). The workshop is guided by the following questions: why is the M&E system being developed (intended use of M&E findings and processes); what is a M&E system; what contextual factors influence the design and implementation of the M&E system and how to address these; how to facilitate development of a shared results framework; how to develop and facilitate implementation of M&E plans; what influences sustained participation in and use of the M&E system?

5 Theory of Change Capacity Building

The objective of this introductory workshop is to familiarise people with Theory of Change (TOC) as both a product and a process. The aim is to increase the capacity of the development sector to design and deliver theory-based programmes and evaluation. The practical session will provide a space for development practitioners to learn from each other by sharing knowledge and experiences.

6 Challenges in evaluating sustainable development

This workshop will introduce the complexities and challenges in evaluating sustainable development to intermediate evaluation professionals. The new Sustainable Development Goals, agreed upon in New York by the United Nations in September 2015, necessitate a fresh look at how environmental sustainability and longer term inclusive development are interlinked and can be assessed and evaluated. Achievements in social and economic development are currently often undermined because they cannot be sustained by our environment in the longer run. Participants will be introduced to how difficulties of scope, scale and timing, and linkages between climate change, natural resources management, poverty, gender and development, can be tackled in evaluations at different levels: projects, policies, and national strategies and priorities.

DESCRIPTION OF WORKSHOP CONTENT


7 How to practically implement the DCED Standard

Business enjoys having universal standards and methods of reporting activities and financial performance, while programmes, policies, and interventions targeting social, economic and environmental outcomes do not. Instead these programmes can report on their performance using a variety of methods, some rigourous, some tailored, and some used to just meet reporting requirements. The plethora of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches can make it confusing for implementers, M&E practitioners, and investors to build fitted systems and make appropriate decisions.To provide guidance, the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) collated good practices in monitoring and measurement into a standard for results measurement (The Standard). The Standard provides an eight-point guide for developing measurement frameworks that enable projects, programmes and interventions to monitor their progress towards their objectives and better measure, manage, and demonstrate their results. Thus, this workshop aims to provide a pragmatic introduction to the Standard and how its good practices can be used to guide the development and management of measurement frameworks.

8 Developing an evaluation terms of reference (TOR) and evaluation management plan

The workshop aims to provide guidance to programme managers responsible for developing evaluation terms of reference and managing evaluation processes. The training will involve presentations interspersed with some plenary and small-group discussion; followed by individual and/or group exercises. It aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• Participants understand when in the programme life cycle is it of value to conduct an evaluation;

• Participants understand the requirements of a competent terms of reference (TOR) for an evaluation and the processes involved in preparing this;

• Participants understand the processes and tasks involved in managing an evaluation from inception to the point of using evaluation findings;

• Participants have had their questions and challenges addressed relating to evaluation processes they are currently or will in future be Managing or supporting.

9 Developmental Evaluation: Applying Systems Thinking and Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use

Developmental Evaluation supports innovation development to guide adaptation to emergent and dynamic realities in complex environments. Innovations can take the form of new projects, programs, products, organizational changes, policy reforms, and system interventions. A complex system is characterized by a large number of interacting and interdependent elements in which there is no central control. Patterns of change emerge from rapid, real time interactions that generate learning, evolution, and development – if one is paying attention and knows how to observe and capture the important and emergent patterns. Complex environments for social interventions and innovations are those in which what to do to solve problems is uncertain and key stakeholders are in conflict about how to proceed. Developmental Evaluation involves real time feedback about what is emerging in complex dynamic systems as innovators seek to bring about systems change. Participants will learn the unique niche of developmental evaluation and what perspectives such as Systems Thinking and Complex Nonlinear Dynamics can offer for alternative evaluation approaches.

DESCRIPTION OF WORKSHOP CONTENT (CONTINUED)


10 Culture Matters: The Essential Art of Integrating Culture in Context into M&E

Dealing with culture is an essential part of dealing with context in M&E. This workshop is aimed at making the evaluation community in South Africa more aware of the importance of culture in sustaining development, how this is being dealt with around the world, and how this can and should inform our M&E practice on a daily basis. Workshop participants will get a sense of the breadth and depth of the concept and practices as this field of work evolves worldwide. They will leave at the end of the day with both theoretical and practical insights that can help them to start engaging more intensely with this important aspect of M&E work. However, this one day will only be the beginning of a much longer journey.

11 An introduction to Equity Focussed, Human Rights and Gender Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation

The workshop will focus on the core concepts of equity based, human rights and gender equality monitoring and evaluation. The workshop will present these in a modular arrangement to facilitate comprehension. The methodology will be participatory and will involve individual and group work.

12 Innovations in Evaluation This is a one day version of the popular workshop developed for the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) initiative looked at some innovations and strategies for supporting innovation in evaluation and introducing innovative methods.

13 Theory of Change as a programme design and evaluation tool – some practical lessons

The term Theory of Change has penetrated the monitoring and evaluation environment. As a result this latest “buzz word” is being used regularly in calling for assistance in the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation processes, often with little understanding as to its use and limitations. Despite the widespread use of theory of change in monitoring and evaluation there is limited conceptual clarity on key concepts, few operational guidelines on developing theories of change, and even fewer guidelines on how to make the most of theories of change in relation to managing and evaluating programs. The workshop speaks directly to these topics. The primary audience of this workshop is programme managers and programme directors who have some exposure to monitoring and evaluation but limited exposure to the monitoring and evaluation thinking behind the design and use of a TOC within a programme. It is anticipated that by the end of the workshop the participants will have a broader understanding of the process of TOC design, an awareness of its use as a programme design and monitoring tool, and some knowledge of its limitations as an evaluation tool.

14 An Introduction to Randomised Impact Evaluations

This interactive workshop will help participants learn about randomized evaluations. The workshop will introduce participants to impact evaluation and encourage participants to think critically about how to determine the causal chain in evaluating a development intervention. Participants will become familiar with different designs of impact evaluation and will have the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss how to choose suitable interventions to impact evaluate and how to identify suitable study designs.



15 Holistic data analysis for stakeholder groups

CARE Canada has developed change spectrums as a visual method for organising and tracking impact across the life of a project or programme. The tool is a spectrum ranging from 0% to 100%. Each percentage point denotes a pre-defined expectation of change based on experience and prior data. By developing a change spectrum for each key stakeholder, we are able to usefully triangulate our data across time, visualise specific data points, and monitor the impact of the project per each stakeholder group throughout implementation. This workshop will introduce participants to this tool and its uses.

Specifically, it will cover: • Uses and case studies for the change spectrums• How to create change spectrums• Identifying stakeholders and defining progress makers• Identifying expected changes within each stakeholder group• Introduce analysis and data tagging to the change spectrum

16 Building an M&E system anchored in good programming

An important element of a good programme is the Theory of Change (ToC) which is a representation of how the intervention will contribute towards the desired change. This is simply a description of the programme in terms of the problem statement, what change is required and what needs to be done to address the problem. This is often influenced by physical, psychological, economic and social processes. The Theory of Change is accompanied by a theory of action where you need to know your intervention, delivery mechanism, activity focus and strategies. A good programme builds on a theory of change that has identified bottlenecks and takes actions to remove the bottlenecks. UNICEF has developed a framework for Monitoring Results for children and these are used in selecting interventions for removing bottlenecks at enabling environment, supply, demand and quality. Issues to keep in mind when prioritising interventions include the size of the problem, potential for impact, ability to demonstrate results and consensus that it is a problem. Selection of an intervention should be guided by a thorough causality analysis. This workshop will assist participants to build an M&E system anchored in good programming.

17 A crash course to address the measurement perceptions for corporate social investment (CSI) programmes

Many corporates support worthy social causes with their CSI programmes based on anecdotal reports and perceptions of impact. Few are aware of consistent measurement practices required to ensure consistent measurement of programme impact. This course provides a holistic introduction to basic, yet fundamental measurement practices that need to be in place to ensure consistent measurement of the impact of CSI programmes. Specifically tailored to meet the needs of CSI programmes, it dispel myths and perceptions around measurement practices for CSI programmes, by assessing goals and objectives, indicators, data use and decision-making, budgeting and resource allocation and evaluation research.



18 Communication for evaluators In a growing information age, people are bombarded with messages from multiple sources – be it through social networks, the media, conferences, communities of practice or online discussion forums. We suffer information overload, daily. As evaluators, we realise this, however, we still present our research findings in 200-page evaluation reports. How can we increase the readability of our evaluation reports? How do we use visual aids to support our evaluations more clearly? Can we write it in stronger, shorter language to be more effective? And finally, how do we convey the research findings beyond the targeted readers to wider audiences via social media? This workshop will provide M&E professionals and evaluators some practical guidelines to overcome the information overload hurdle.

19 Collaborative implementation of the NDP : Using PPP Evaluation to Improve People’s Lives?

Participants with a basic understanding of the National Development Plan (NDP) vision, values and strategies will learn how to design, coordinate or implement a collaborative, utilisation-focused evaluation of selected strategies of the NDP using an interactive methodology that explores appropriate designs for “ active citizenry” collaborative M&E of NDP programmes.


Mon, 12 O

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eds, 14 Oct

Thurs, 15 Oct

Fri, 16 Oct

08:00A

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Arrival &

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Arrival &

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Parallel Session 408:30

4 Two D

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4 Two D

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and 4 One D

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7 Half-D

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09:30Tea break

10:00Tea break



11:30Keynote address 3


12:30Sum

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Closing

13:00Lunch Break

Lunch BreakLunch

13:30

14:00Conference opening

& w

elcome

Parallel Session 3

Free afternoon

14:30


15:30Tea break

16:00Tea break

Plenary panel discussion

16:30Plenary panel

discussion17:00

Free eveningFree evening

17:30

SAM

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Break18:30

19:00W

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awards

The conference programm

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ill be released closer to the conference after stream coordinators have finalised the parallel schedules.

*All tim

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INTERNATIONAL GUESTSThe international guests in attendance at the SAMEA conference are always a highlight as they come to share, learn from and exchange with our South Africa M&E community. This year’s distinguished guests are no exception and we’re very excited to be including them in the conference programme.

Robert D. van den Berg is President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton and Special Advisor Development Cooperation at the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until September 2014 he was director of GEF’s Independent Evaluation Office. He previously directed the independent Policy and Operations Review Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held various positions in Dutch development cooperation. He has also chaired the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s DAC Network on Development Evaluation. Rob has co-edited 4 books on various aspects of development cooperation and published more than 25 articles on a wide range of subjects in international cooperation since 1999, mainly focusing on evaluation issues.

Patricia Rogers is Professor in Public Sector Evaluation and project director of BetterEvaluation – a platform for improving evaluation practice and theory by sharing information about evaluation methods. Patricia has worked in public sector evaluation and research for more than 25 years, with government and non-government organizations (international, national, state and local) across a wide range of program areas. She has worked on projects with the United Nations Development Program, World Bank Institute, Network Of Networks on Impact Evaluation (NONIE), Department of Energy (USA), the Presidency (RSA), Public Service Commission (RSA), and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Patricia has presented keynote addresses at conferences of the Australasian, Aotearoa/New Zealand, European, United Kingdom, South African and Swedish evaluation societies and associations and is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Evaluation and New Directions for Evaluation. She has been awarded the American Evaluation Association’s Myrdal Award for Evaluation Practice, the Australasian Evaluation Society’s Evaluation Training and Services Award for outstanding contributions to the profession of evaluation, the AES Caulley-Tulloch Prize for Pioneering Literature in Evaluation and (with Sue Funnell) the AES Best Evaluation Study Award.

Kate McKegg is a founding member of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (anzea), serving as a board member from 2006-2010, and Convenor from 2008-2010 and again from 2012-2014. She is also one of the foremost thinkers internationally on evaluative thinking, practice and evaluation use in support of improved community and organisational outcomes. She has written about this subject, conducted training on evaluation and evaluative thinking, including the use of systems approaches, and made many presentations at evaluation conferences in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Malaysia and the United States. The book she co-edited entitled Evaluating Policy and Practice – A New Zealand Reader ( 2003, Pearson Educational Press, Auckland) is, and remains to this day, the authoritative text on evaluation for New Zealand. She is the Director of The Knowledge Institute, Ltd and a member of The Kinnect Group (www.kinnect.co.nz).

Kate will be joined by Michael Q. Patton virtually for her workshop on complexity and systems thinking. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the doyen of utilization focused evaluation.

Dr. Sulley Gariba was appointed Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada in December 2014. Prior to his appointment, he was the senior Policy Advisor to the President of Ghana, and head of the President’s Policy Delivery Unit. He is a policy analyst and governance specialist with over 30 years of experience in advising governments and international institutions on development policy, governance, evaluation and international relations. Dr. Gariba is a leader in the international evaluation movement, having been founding President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) from 2002 to 2005 and President of the African Evaluation Association from 2007-2009. He advised the secretariat managing the first round Evaluation of the Paris Declaration between 2006 and 2008; has served on several expert panels to assess the evaluation function in UNICEF, the UNDP, AGRA and the World Bank. In June 2014, Carleton University in Ottawa, conferred a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on Sulley Gariba, in recognition of his longstanding work and academic scholarship in international development, civil society practices, government policy and program development in Africa. He became the first African in the history of that university to be given this award. In 2005, Dr. Gariba was recognized in Ghana as the winner of the Millennium Excellence Award for excellence in Rural Development.

In addition to the above, the conference will showcase some of South Africa’s foremost evaluation thinkers and practitioners. Make sure you don’t miss this event!

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Third Announcement Conference Overvie · 2015-09-22 · No. Workshop Title Brief Workshop...

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