Evaluation of the project “Set-up of a demand-oriented and regionally harmonized quality infrastructure in the Andean Region”
CEval was mandated by Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) to evaluate the project Set-up of a demand-oriented and regionally harmonized quality infrastructure in the Andean Region.
The project involved the countries of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru and aimed at improving the services offered by local institutions of quality infrastructure (QI). The evaluation addressed the criteria developed by DAC (relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, sustainability) and the components of the management model Capacity Works (strategy, cooperation, steering structure, processes, learning and innovation). Specific evaluation questions were:
– How successful was the approach to develop regional QI-services?
– To what extent do the partners consider the approach as appropriate?
– Which success factors and lessons learnt can be identified?
– How successful was the approach to develop sector-specific supply strategies in each country?
– Which success factors and lessons learnt can be identified?
First, the evaluation consulted project documents only to assess the possibility to conduct evaluations based solely on documents. After a first assessment of the results, these were complemented by interviews with project staff of the PTB and its partner institutions. >From this, recommendations for future projects and evaluations based solely on documents were derived.
Meta-Evaluation: Project Evaluations of international development co-operation of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES)
The International Development Cooperation Department (IEZ) of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) commissions around ten external evaluations per year in order to continuously improve its own work, to initiate learning processes as an organization based on experience gained and to fulfil its accountability to the donor.
As part of a meta-evaluation, the Center for Evaluation (CEval) was commissioned to analyze 18 evaluation reports that had been prepared between 2012 and 2014 during a phase in which IEZ’s quality management had undergone significant development. The aim of the meta-evaluation was to identify systematic strengths and weaknesses of current evaluation practice, to derive findings for improving the quality of future evaluations and thus to increase their usefulness for project managers and the responsible units.
While the quality of the evaluation reports was analyzed in a desk study, in-depth expert interviews and focus group discussions were also held within the FES to assess the usefulness of the evaluations.
Improving the monitoring and reporting system to implement the action plan Inclusion of Persons with disabilities in the German development co-operation
In February 2013, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) published an action plan for the inclusion of persons with disabilities (PWDs). In doing so, it follows its duties emanating from Article 32 of the UN Convention on the rights of PWDs. The action plan provides information on strategic goals and actions to design development cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany towards a better inclusion of PWDs.
To asses the Progress and to steer the implementation of planned an appropriate Monitoring and reporting system was necessary. Hence, the Center for Evaluation (CEval) had been contracted to Support the sector project “Inclusion of PWDs” of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the department 300 of the BMZ with its methodological Expertise to develop an Analysis grid to evaluate the implementation of the action plan.
Independent Evaluations in the Sector Rural Development: Sustainable Management and Use of Natural Resources and Capacity Development in Central America
In this cycle of independent evaluations, there were three international development programs (all executed by the GIZ) to be evaluated by CEval:
- Promoting sustainable use of resources and local economic development in Honduras (PRORENA), Honduras
- Sustainable resource management and promotion of entrepreneurial competencies (MASRENACE), Nicaragua
- Developing and strengthening competencies and capacities to manage natural resources in Central America (Alianza de Aprendizaje)
The evaluation aimed at studying all emerged (positive, as well as negative, intended as well as non-intended) changes in order to define the project results. Based on the logic of the funnel approach, first all sector relevant changes were detected and then the causal link to the program interventions were analyzed (–>result attribution).
To attain the relevant information and to construct the counterfactual situation, CEval used a mixed-methods approach. Concretely, CEval performed the following services:
- Developing an overarching results model of the three interventions based on the project documents for assessing the project results,
- Conducting qualitative interviews with key actors and focus group interviews with beneficiaries,
- Administering a quantitative survey on the level of beneficiaries,
- Bio-technical analyses of soil samples and biodiversity factors (e.g. investigating the basal area and the number of tree species).
As a final step, the cross-cutting analyses of all three programs were merged in a synthesis report.
Assessing the Impacts of Multinational Corporations on Global Development and Value Creation (Global Value)
The importance of multinational corporations for furthering global economic and social development is well established. Corporations invest in foreign countries, provide jobs, and thus generate formalized labor relations and income. Furthermore, they pay taxes that contribute to the provision of public services. At the same time, multinational corporations particularly have received criticism by being accused of supporting exploitative employment conditions and human rights abuses, causing environmental deterioration, and failing to mainstream responsible conduct in developing countries.
The GLOBAL VALUE project developed an innovative framework for assessing impacts of multinational corporations on issues related to sustainable development, working conditions, human rights, transparency, and anti-corruption. It shed light on institutional arrangement; analysed systems of governance for responsible business practices; explored responsible competitiveness; assessed the complementarity of public and private sector activities; and derived recommendations for decision makers in business, policy and non-governmental organisations.
The project was carried out by universities and civil society organisations from Europe and ICPC countries. A toolkit for impact evaluation was developed and tested in close collaboration with leading multinational corporations (BATA (garment, Bangladesh), OLAM (food, Tanzania) and NOKIA (ICT, India)).
The main responsibility of CEval was the development of an indicator-set for the framework which is based on Millennium Development Goals, human rights, gender & diversity, and anti-corruption & transparency and takes corporate management approaches (supply chain management, life cycle analysis and base-of-pyramid) as well as systems of governance for responsible business practices, competitiveness, and complementarity with official development aid (ODA) into account. In addition, it carried out two research case studies focusing on the complementarity of ODA with multinational corporations´ activities.
Evaluation of the PTB blended-learning course “Quality Infrastructure for Sustainable Development” (QuISP)
The Center for Evaluation (CEval) had been mandated to conduct an evaluation of the blended-learning course Quality Infrastructure for Sustainable Development (QuISP) which was developed and implemented by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The course aims at improving the Quality Infrastructure (QI) in developing countries by building up individual and institutional capacities particularly with regard to standardization and related disciplines.
The objective of the evaluation was to provide relevant information for the improvement of the QuISP training course with regard to its future implementation and potential scaling up.
Final Evaluation Evaluation of SCAMPIS Scaling up micro-irrigation systems in India, Madagascar and Guatemala
Since 1977, IFAD has worked to raise productivity and income of rural poor populations to overcome poverty and improve the quality of their lives. In its long history, the Fund has developed and implemented various programs and projects all over the world. Scaling up micro-irrigation systems in India, Madagascar and Guatemala (SCAMPIS) is one of the IFAD’s projects, financed by COOPERNIC with a budget of 3 million Euro. In the period of 2008-2012, it has aimed at improving livelihoods and food security of 30.000 smallholder households in the three pilot countries of India, Madagascar and Guatemala by providing them with micro irrigation systems (MIS) and liquid organic fertilizer systems (LOF).
Before the program phased out in December 2012, an external evaluation of SCAMPIS was conducted in order to assess the achievement of program objectives and outcomes. In particular, according to the Terms of Reference, the evaluation had pursued three objectives:
- The review assessed the achievement of the programme objectives and outcomes with regard to its components and corresponding target groups.
- Lessons learnt and recommendations were provided for IFAD with regard to improvement of design and implementation of future programs. Replicability and scaling up were core concepts in this context.
- Special attention was put on the sustainability especially with regard to any future activities to be implemented by the different stakeholders along the water value chain of MIS/LOF.
The CEval evaluation team visited each project country for 12 days to conduct interviews with main stakeholders in the implementing organizations, key persons along the MIS value chain and the primary beneficiaries. In addition, a quantitative survey had been conducted in each of the three project countries to learn more about the impact MIS has on food security in different country contexts. Finally, IFADs perspective was taken into account by using data from interviews with most important representatives for the SCAMPIS project.
East4South – Development Awareness from the Roots
Subject of the evaluation was the EU-funded project of the Deutsche Welle Academy (DWA) East4South – Development Awareness from the Roots”. The projects overall goal was to raise awareness about development issues among EU-12 citizens and positively changing their attitude towards EU development policy. The project aimed specifically at enabling the EU12 journalists to prepare high quality media products covering development issues and to publish them in their home countries media by providing training in intercultural journalism and on-site research and a media production stay in Africa for young journalists from EU-12 countries. In the course of the project a total of 60 young journalists from Eastern Europe and Africa were fostered and supported when creating their own network.
Goal of the summative ex-post evaluation was to verify and analyze the outcome of the project activities and the quality of the project management. The CEval GmbH followed a mixed-method approach combining in-depth stakeholder interviews and secondary and document analysis of module evaluation surveys and participants short reports with a standardized online survey of all participants.Talking about migrants lives in Russia
Subject of Evaluation was the EU-funded project Talking about migrants lives in Russia of the DW Akademie and the Foundation for Independent Radio Broadcasting. The project aimed to increase awareness about the situation of migrants within Russian society by strengthening cooperation between the Russian media and civil society organizations (CSOs) who are working on migrant issues. In order to achieve this goal, training activities for radio journalists and CSO activists were provided. The workshops aimed to introduce the CSO activists to agenda-setting mechanism of the media and to equip the journalists with storytelling skills and in-the-field reporting skills in order to do genuine social reporting on migration issues. Following the training activities the workshop participants took part in panel discussions where they presented their media productions and exchanged experiences on the reporting on migrant issues. A major medium-term outcome of those activities was the establishment of a sustainable network between CSO activists and radio journalists.
Goal of the summative ex-post evaluation was to analyze and assess the short- and medium-term outcomes of the training workshops. For this purpose the evaluation additionally analyzed to what extent the projects web platform, the panel discussions and organizational aspects in general influenced the expected outcomes. For data acquisition, CEval GmbH followed a mixed-method approach combining in-depth stakeholder interviews, document as well as secondary analysis of module evaluation surveys. Additionally a standardized online survey in Russian of all workshop participants was carried out.Strengthening evaluation capacities within government and civil society in Uganda (ECD Uganda): Development of a blended-learning Master of Evaluation (2012-2015)
Evaluation as a scientific means to describe and assess interventions is gaining relevance worldwide. The needs for qualified evaluation professionals are increasing in Uganda, too. However, at the moment these needs cannot be satisfied due to lack of training- and evaluation programs in this region. It is for this reason that the BMZ together with CEval and GIZ initiated a program for developing evaluation capacities in Uganda.
The most important component of this program is the development and implementation of a master course in evaluation in the blended-learning format at Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU) in Kampala, Uganda. Blended-learning is an innovative concept which is gaining popularity worldwide and is now the default means of teaching at UTAMU. Blended-learning unites traditional face-to-face classes with modern forms of e-learning in a didactical coherent way. An advantage of this concept is, that it is possible not only for Ugandan students to attend classes but also for all students of English-speaking African countries.
The Master of Evaluation of Saarland University in cooperation with HTW Saarland serves as a template for the Ugandan Master, which will be introduced in fall 2015. The contents of the master program have been developed in cooperation with CEval GmbH, the teachers of the German master as well as Ugandan contact persons of Makarere University and have been adapted to the Ugandan context. The Ugandan Master of Monitoring and Evaluation will comprise 15 modules in total, seven of which are in compliance with the basic teaching program of evaluation at Saarland universities. This is to ensure that all topics relevant to acquire profound knowledge in the field of evaluation are covered. UTAMU has complemented this program with further modules regarding project management, monitoring as well as business start-up consulting. The modules are roughly comprised of web-based trainings, e-tutoring and face-to-face seminars. The teaching concepts have also been developed in cooperation with all stakeholders. The GIZ is responsible for the technical implementation of the e-learning concepts.
Two modules of the master of evaluation have been tested in an experimental phase together with UTAMU. During this experimental phase e-tutoring as well as the face-to-face seminars have been supervised in the tandem-principle by teachers of UTAMU and Saarland University/HTW. The hosting of the online study course has been undertaken by the GIZ platform GC 21. In a next step, the seven modules have been integrated into the already existing UTAMU master and the new course of study has been submitted to the responsible committees. The course of study is now aggregated and will be introduced experimentally. A decision about whether the course of study will be continued and which modifications would be necessary for this procedure, will be made in December 2016.