Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs): Learning from Africa, Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe and Middle East

This book is focused on case studies highlighting the experiences of regional and national VOPEs.  They share their experiences in strengthening the capacities of individual evaluators to produce credible and useful evaluations, the institutional capacities of the VOPEs themselves, promoting equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluations, and, especially, the roles VOPEs are playing to improve the enabling environment for evaluation in their countries.

Excerpt

This book is a sequel to its predecessor, Evaluation and Civil Society: Stakeholders’ perspectives on National Evaluation Capacity Development. In that first book, leaders of major international agencies eloquently described their perspectives on the strategic role Civil Society Organizations can and should play in promoting use of evaluation by governments and others to be more transparent and accountable, and to use the findings of evaluations to continuously improve the effectiveness of policies and programs. In this book the focus is on the experiences of many Civil Society Organizations – more specifically, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs). These are formally organized societies or associations, or, in some cases, informal networks; some at regional levels, many at national levels. Their members come from a variety of perspectives, including government, academia, NGOs, consultancies, etc.; yet with common interests in promoting the production and utilization of evaluation.

Contents

  • Part 1: EvalPartners and the roles of Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs)
    • EvalPartners and the role of Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) in the development of national evaluation capacity
    • The growth and evolving capacities of VOPEs
    • Teaching Evaluation in South Asia. Collaboration among Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), VOPEs, academia and development partner
  • Part 2: The role of regional VOPEs in fostering National Evaluation Capacity Development
    • African Evaluation Association (AfrEA):Institutionalization of evaluation in Africa: The role of AfrEA
    • Australasian Evaluation Society (AES): Three decades of strengthening evaluation capacity in Australasia (1982-2012)
    • Community of Evaluators (CoE): A regional evaluation organization for South Asia
    • European Evaluation Society (EES): Making a difference: Supporting evaluative practice through the EES
    • Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region: International Program Evaluation Network (IPEN): Building evaluation community in a disintegrating region
    • Latin America and the Caribbean: ReLAC - Red de Seguimiento, Evaluación y Sistematización en América Latina y el Caribe: Challenges and possibilities of an evaluation network in Latin America and the Caribbean. The case of the ReLAC
  • Part 3: Learning from national VOPEs
    • Brazil: Brazilian Monitoring and Evaluation Network (BMEN): Brazilian monitoring and evaluation network. Creation, development and perspectives
    • Canada: Canadian Evaluation Society (CES): CES - Well-established but still changing
    • Côte d’Ivoire: Réseau Ivoirien de Suivi et d’Evaluation (RISE): Progressing and sharing experience in development evaluation
    • Egypt: Egyptian Research and Evaluation Network (EREN): Evaluation in revolution: towards the era of positive change
    • France: F3E (Fonds pour la promotion des etudes préalables, des etudes transversales et des evaluations): F3E -- a national network dedicated to the culture of evaluation, impact and quality of actions of a community of development actors
    • Indonesia: Indonesian Development Evaluation Community (InDEC): Building the evaluation field through strengthening a national evaluation association
    • Kenya: Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK): A case study of the evolution of the Evaluation Society of Kenya
    • Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan): The national monitoring and evaluation network of the Kyrgyz Republic
    • Morocco: Association Marocaine de l’Evaluation (AME): Moving from the inclusion of evaluation of public policies in the national constitution to the institutionalization of the function of evaluation in Morocco
    • New Zealand: Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (anzea): Strengthening the representation of indigenous and South Pacific voices in evaluation
    • Niger: Réseau Nigérien de Suivi Evaluation (ReNSE): ReNSE's contribution to the promotion of good government in Niger within a democratic and decentralizing context
    • Romania: Romanian Evaluation Association (EvalRom): EvalRom - Challenges for continuity
    • Senegal: Senegalese Evaluation Association (SenEval): SenEval -- A decade of advocacy and action for evaluation in Senegal
    • South Africa: South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA): Voluntarism, consolidation, collaboration and growth. The case of SAMEA
    • Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Evaluation Association (SLEvA): The past, present and future
  • Part 4: The role of VOPEs in fostering equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluations and evaluation systems
    • The rough road of pioneering change.  AGDEN’s engagement with gender and human rights responsive evaluation
    • American Evaluation Association (AEA): Feminist Issues Topical Interest Feminist Issues
    • Promoting feminist and gender responsive evaluation approaches
    • International Program Evaluation Network (IPEN): Introduction of the methodology for gender and human rights responsive evaluation in the CIS region
    • ReLAC: The learning community for gender equality and human rights-based approach to evaluation

Sources

Rugh, J., and Segone, M., editors (2013). Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs): Learning from Africa, Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe and Middle East. EvalPartners, UNICEF, IOCE. http://www.mymande.org/sites/default/files/UNICEF_NY_ECS_Book2_web.pdf