Search

  • Discussion Paper: Innovations in Monitoring and Evaluation

    This discussion paper produced by the United Nations Development Programme discusses various innovations that are occurring in M&E, and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.
    Resource
  • Realist Evaluation Workshop

    The focus of this one-day workshop was to build practical skills to conduct a realist evaluation for international development projects and programmes. The rapidly changing context of development assistance in recent years combined wit
    Resource
  • Week 49: The 1st international conference on realist approaches to evaluation: my ‘realist’ take-aways

    In this blog, Tiina shares her top three realist ‘take-aways’ from the 1st International Conference on Realist Approaches to Evaluation and reflects on when or how realist evaluation may be most useful.
    Blog
  • 2017 International realist conference

    We've got our head in realism this week, partly because early-bird registrations for the 2017 International Realist Conference close soon, and partly because we've been shown Chris Lysy's realist cartoon series (commissioned by the Rameses
    Blog
  • Peer learning

    Peer learning refers to a practitioner-to-practitioner approach in which the transfer of tacit knowledge is particularly important (Andrews and Manning 2016).
    Method
  • Evidence-based policy: A realist perspective

    This book, written by Ray Pawson, provides a critique of the meta-analytic approach and argues that the realist synthesis is a better way of understanding program theory, therefore enabling properly targeted policies to address the con
    Resource
  • Designing participatory meetings and brownbags: A TOPS quick guide to linking development practitioners

    This short guide by the Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Program and USAID focuses on identifying appropriate formats and approaches for presentations, group discussions and problem solving sessions to enhance
    Resource
  • Realist evaluation introductory resources

    This website, from e-MOPs, provides an introduction to Realist Evaluation and includes links to a range of resources, including academic papers, video introductions, online community resources and case studies.
    Resource
  • Outcome harvesting

    Outcome Harvesting collects (“harvests”) evidence of what has changed (“outcomes”) and, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes.
    Approach
  • 52 weeks of BetterEvaluation: Week 16: Identifying and documenting emergent outcomes of a global network

    Global voluntary networks are complex beasts with dynamic and unpredictable actions and interactions. How can we evaluate the results of a network like this? Whose results are we even talking about?
    Blog
  • Example outcome journal template

    This template is based on the original Outcome Mapping guidance, incorporating elements from Outcome Harvesting (e.g. significance) and allowing tagging to particular progress markers (rather than listing them all as the original does).
    Resource
  • Realist evaluation

    Realist evaluation aims to identify the underlying generative causal mechanisms that explain how outcomes were caused and how context influences these.
    Approach
  • Realist evaluation

    An approach especially to impact evaluation which examines what works for whom in what circumstances through what causal mechanisms, including changes in the reasoning and resources of participants.
    Approach
  • Realist impact evaluation: An introduction

    Realist impact evaluation is an approach to impact evaluation that emphasises the importance of context for programme outcomes.
    Resource
  • Causal Pathways introductory session: Outcome harvesting for exploring causal pathways

    This session of the Causal Pathways Symposium 2023, by Carlisle Levine and Hippolyt Pul, introduces outcome harvesting, a method to collect evidence of what has changed and whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes.
    Resource
  • Outcome harvesting

    This 27-page brief, written by Ricardo Wilson-Grau and Heather Britt, introduces the key concepts and approach used by Outcome Harvesting (published by the Ford Foundation in May 2012; revised in Nov 2013).
    Resource
  • Cosecha de alcances

    Cosecha de Alcances es una herramienta centrada en la utilización y altamente participativo que permite a evaluadores, donantes y gerentes de proyectos y programas identificar, formular, verificar y dar sentido a los alcances en que han inf
    Resource
  • Retrospective 'outcome harvesting': Generating robust insights

    This paper describes the use of the Outcome Harvesting approach to evaluate a global voluntary network.
    Resource
  • Discussion note: Complexity aware monitoring

    USAID’s Office of Learning, Evaluation and Research (LER) has produced a Discussion Note: Complexity-Aware Monitoring, intended for those seeking cutting-edge solutions to monitoring complex aspects of strategies and projects.  
    Resource
  • Introduction: Contribution, causality, context, and contingency when evaluating inclusive business programmes

    This IDS Bulletin discusses approaches and methods for meaningful impact evaluation, building on real-world experiences with theory-based evaluation in inclusive business programmes.
    Resource
  • Cases in outcome harvesting

    This report from The World Bank documents the pilot of a program that examines the use of outcome harvesting and the Bank's results management approach to understand how change happens in complex environments.
    Resource
  • Realistic evaluation bloodlines

    This article, written by Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley analyses six different social science inquiries from around the globe that use a variety of methods and strategies in order to draw conclusions about realistic evaluations.
    Resource
  • Making rigorous causal claims in a real-life context: Has research contributed to sustainable forest management?

    This article discusses an impact evaluation that examined the contribution of two forestry research centres - the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour
    Resource
  • Causal Pathways introductory session: Realist evaluation

    This session of the Causal Pathways Symposium 2023, by Melanie Punton, is an introduction to Realist Evaluation, a theory-based evaluation approach based on the idea that interventions do not work for everyone, all the time.
    Resource
  • Causal Pathways 2023 Symposium and 2024 introductory sessions

    This series of webinars was first presented at the Causal Pathways Symposium 2023, which focused on "connecting, learning, and building a shared understanding of the evaluation and participatory practices that make causal pathways more visible"
    Resource