Blogs

Happy New Year from BetterEvaluation

Alice Macfarlan's picture 21st January 2021 by Alice Macfarlan

Happy New Year to all our members and users. While we’re happy to wish the year 2020 farewell, many of the challenges and difficulties that arose over the past 12 months are still with us, as is the sadness over the many different forms of loss we’ve all experienced. We’re entering 2021 with a spirit of reflection, inspired by how the global community has pivoted and innovated, and determined to meet the ongoing challenges of 2021 and help our community do their best work.

Some of the things we’re proud of over the past 12 months

Vale Marie Gervais

Patricia Rogers's picture 18th January 2021 by Patricia Rogers

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Marie-Gervais in mid-December 2020.  Marie, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University, Quebec, made a lasting contribution to the French-speaking evaluation community in Canada, Europe and Africa.  

We wanted to honour Marie’s legacy by sharing some of the initiatives she supported and some of her ideas on improving evaluation practice.

Outcome classification: A framework to tally outcome statements across projects

Rasmus Heltberg and Stephen Porter's picture 16th December 2020 by Rasmus Heltberg and Stephen Porter

It’s one thing to look at project and program ratings to see how well the stated objectives of a portfolio of projects are being met. But without an aggregate view of what these objectives are trying to achieve, it’s difficult to fully understand how well this portfolio is contributing to an organisation’s mission and wider development goals. What’s missing is a better understanding of the links between project objectives and the types of outcomes that these are aiming to achieve.

Introducing footprint evaluation

Patricia Rogers's picture 30th October 2020 by Patricia Rogers

Given the numerous interconnected environmental crises the world faces, there is an urgent need to include consideration of environmental impacts into all evaluations. Footprint evaluation focuses on evaluating the ‘footprint’ that human systems make on natural systems. Importantly, it includes evaluating the potential and actual environmental impacts of interventions that do not have explicit environmental objectives.

Objectives-Based Evaluation (OBE) for impact investing

Bob Picciotto's picture 13th October 2020 by Bob Picciotto

Bob Picciotto is a former Director General of the Independent Evaluation Group which oversees evaluation in the International Finance Corporation, an agency dedicated to the promotion of private sector development in developing countries. In this guest blog, he argues that the ethical investment community has much to learn from the Objectives-Based Evaluation (OBE) approach used by the multilateral development banks: OBE rates social and environmental sustainability performance as well as economic and financial returns.

Better ways of choosing and using metrics in evaluation of impact investing

mishkahjakoet's picture 15th September 2020 by mishkahjakoet

We invited Mishkah Jakoet to share some thoughts on how metrics can be more useful for impact investing.  Mishkah brings considerable experience in evaluation for impact investing, including contributing to the revision of the IRIS+ indicators.

Adapting evaluation in the time of COVID-19 — Part 3: FRAME

Alice Macfarlan's picture 13th August 2020 by Alice Macfarlan

Evaluation needs to respond to the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.  As well as direct implications for the logistics of collecting data and managing evaluation processes, the pandemic has led to rapid changes in what organisations are trying to do and how evaluation can best be used to support these changes.   

Pages