Capturing the Added Value of Participatory Evaluation

Readers will remember that in February we highlighted a new handbook of participatory evaluation developed by Evalparticipativa.  This journal article from the University of Florida’s Erica Odera takes another approach to analysing the value of participation in the field of evaluation.  It explores the important ways in which participation alters an evaluation and suggests possible future avenues of research into this topic.  The American Journal of Evaluation also published in the same issue this month a more niche application of participatory evaluation.  Relatedly, January saw the publication of several articles on participatory systems (here and here).  

Using collaborative conceptual modelling as a tool for transdisciplinarity

Modelling is playing an increasingly vital role in evaluation and this article takes the specialised technique of collaborative conceptual modelling (CCM) to the problem of transdisciplinarity.  Giving an even handed treatment of the method, the authors outline its practical applications and limitations with examples.  An introduction to collaborative conceptual modelling can be found here. 

Time is up: Let’s increase efforts to mainstream gender in evaluations!

International Women’s Day – 8 March – provides an opportunity for collective reflection on the gender issues across society and industry, including evaluation.  The EES’ Secretary General Karin Kohlweg and Petra Novakova, Leader of EES Thematic Working Group 1, capitalised on the opportunity to make a call for more decisive action in gender mainstreaming in evaluation, at the programmatic, management and theoretical levels.  The blog provides a practical approach for accelerating equality at a time when progress has slowed or stalled in many areas.  

How to Implement a Strategy to Close Gender Gaps?

Also marking International Women’s Day, the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) published a highly visual “theory of action” for accomplishing greater gender equality, drawing on the IEG’s own assessment experience.  The strategy provides a clear roadmap for removing institutional bottlenecks that block progress and developing synergies between organisational silos. Typically of the World Bank, the blog contains a sharp focus on a country-driven approach to achieve change where it is most needed and find solutions in diverse contexts.