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Choices about voices

In this third blog in the participation in evaluation series, Irene Guijt and Leslie Groves share frameworks to approach and make decisions about the level of stakeholder involvement during different evaluation stages.
Participation not for you? Four reflections that might just change your mind

This month we start a series on participation in evaluation by Leslie Groves and Irene Guijt. This blog series aims to explore one simple question: How can we best open up evaluation processes to include those intended to benefit from a specific project, programme or policy? A simple question. Yet one that is surprisingly often not considered or quickly dismissed in international development.
Week 50: Feedback loops – new buzzword, old practice?

Recently, I had the good fortune to start collaboration with The MasterCard Foundation, which is strongly committed to what it calls ‘listening deeply and elevating voices’. This organisation is one of an increasing number in international development expressing more than a superficial interest in ‘client feedback’.
Accountable Aid
This blog post from Participatory Methods provides a detailed overview of Acountable Aid. The blog argues that only rarely do aid agencies introduce measures so that the recipients of their aid can hold them to account for their aid-giving practices.
Reflections on innovation, assessment and social change processes: a SPARC case study, India
This paper, written by Sheela Patel for SPARC, provides a case study of the development of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) in India. The paper is broken up into three sections: The first section describes the evolution of SPARC’s approach and how learning and assessment are embedded within the development process. The next section describes the methodology and partnerships that underpin the change process. Section 3 describes in some detail illustrates the non-linear, dynamic, unpredictable, long term nature of change that challenges conventional assessment approaches.
Time to Listen: Hearing People on the Receiving End of International Aid
This guide, written by Mary B. Anderson, Dayna Brown and Isabella Jean for CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, reports on the ideas, insights, and analyses of almost 6,000 people who were beneficiaries of international aid projects in order to try a better understand how effective development programs have been and answer some very broad, big picture questions on the nature of international development.
New thematic content pages - what do you think?
The BetterEvaluation team have been busy developing a new kind of content - thematic pages - which introduce evaluation of a particular sector or theme. We envisage these pages becoming portals in themselves, where people can come for tailored information on designing evaluations in mroe specific contexts, with specialist tools and options.