Projekt-Kategorien: Development Cooperation

External Evaluation of Four Different Projects in the Field of Awareness Raising and a Synthesis

As international Christian development organisation, the Christian Blind Mission (CBM) aims at improving the human rights situation and the inclusion of people with disabilities. Awareness raising is one important component to achieve this target successfully. To learn how awareness raising activities are implemented, how they contribute to CBM’s overall aim and how project and country specifics produce different results, CBM Germany has engaged CEval to evaluate four projects and to compile findings and recommendations in a synthesis report.

With co-funding, either by the European Union or by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, CBM Germany implements two projects addressing the needs of people with hearing impairment in the Palestine Territories (Gaza and Gaza Strip), one project to improve eye care and rehabilitation in India, and one project to strengthen disability rights and inclusion in Swaziland. Given the diversity of these projects, issues of awareness raising can be studied from various perspectives. Thus, analysing the different underlying assumptions and needs which in turn lead to various approaches and expected outcomes, will contribute to a better understanding of the overall topic of awareness raising. While the projects in Gaza and India require a mid-term evaluation as they are still on-going, the projects in Gaza Strip and Swaziland are close to their end and will be finally evaluated

Development of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Plan project “Adolescent Boys: Champions of Change on Gender Equality and Girls Rights”

Plan International is a non-religious, non-political and non-governmental development organization working to bring lasting improvements in children’s lives in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In order to strengthen the promotion of gender equality and to engage boys and men in this work, Plan International Germany and Plan International Finland together with four Plan country offices from the region of the Americas implemented the pilot project „’Adolescent Boys: Champions of Change on Gender Equality and Girls Rights“’. The project built the capacity of male youth as peer educators for gender equality and was carried out in five countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Germany.
The Center for Evaluation (CEval) evaluated the pilot project using quantitative and qualitative methods, identified lessons learnt and designed a monitoring and evaluation framework for the future implementation and upscaling of the project.

Evaluation of CALIDENA – A participative instrument to support the improvement of quality infrastructures

CEval had been mandated by Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) to conduct the evaluation of CALIDENA, a participative approach to systematically and sustainably support the improvement of national quality infrastructures in developing countries. The evaluation systematized the experiences that have been made with the instrument so far and, on that basis, aimed at delivering relevant information for the enhancement of the instrument and its transfer to and application in new contexts.

CEval employed a mixed-method approach. Data had been collected using qualitative expert interviews, quantitative surveys, participant observation and group discussions. Once the analysis of the data thus gathered had been finalized, the evaluation results had been presented in an evaluation report and nurture the overall evaluation synthesis of various PTB instruments in the area of quality infrastructure development, which was also being implemented by CEval.

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 project’s 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.

Strengthening of evaluation capacity in Central America (FOCEVAL)

The project “Strengthening of evaluation capacity in Central America (FOCEVAL)” of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH aimed to strengthen the role of evaluation in the policy-making process and the control of policies in Costa Rica and selected countries in Central America. The measure was designed as a regional project, whose political sponsorship lies with the Costa Rican Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN).

Within the framework of the ECD-project, the task of the CEval GmbH was the implementation of a number of training courses on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) at different aspiration levels for the partner structures. The contents of the already tested and repeatedly conducted training courses reflect the different needs among the target groups. In addition, the CEval GmbH offered the regional project a continuous scientific support, which ensures a permanent connection to the current international discussion on evaluation, and maintains the link to scientific organizations and networks. It furthermore comprised a range of advisory services, particularly in the strategy and concept development, which was based on the latest scientific findings of monitoring and evaluation research.

Impact evaluation of the Hanns Seidel Foundation activities in the area of ‘civic education’ in Kenya

The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) has been committed to development cooperation for more than 35 years (as of 2013) and has been working in Kenya since 1987. In 2013, the Foundation set out to conduct an impact evaluation of its activities in the area of civic education in Kenya for the first time. These activities first and foremost comprise civic education workshops.

This impact evaluation aimed at providing empirically and methodologically sound evidence of the HSF’s civic education workshops in Kenya and making an estimation of the workshops’ expected sustainability.

To answer the evaluation questions an elaborate quasi-experimental design was chosen that was characterized by having several measurement times and by including two comparison groups. The different measurement times allow observing direct effects of the interventions as well as a (potential) change in these effects over time. The comparison group approach enabled us to control external effects on the target groups on the local and national levels. Data collection was implemented by a team of students of the University of Nairobi who have been trained for this specific task by the CEval.

Multi-Country Evaluation of Regional Knowledge and Leadership Areas: Area 4: Inclusion of all Out of School Children in Quality Learning in CEE/CIS

The purpose of the evaluation was (i) to assess the extent to which UNICEF’s contributions to program interventions addressed major child rights violations in education, reduced equity gaps and led to impact results for children; and (ii) to draw from learning practices, innovations and models for future UNICEF country programming processes.
The objective is, therefore:

  • to document and report on impact results in terms of changes in children’s life
  • to assess and demonstrate how such results were made possible through system changes; and
  • to document the contribution of UNICEF to these system changes.

In addition, the evaluation ensures that mechanisms for the assessment of impact results embrace issues of:

  • contextual adequacy (regarding tailoring programming approaches to the qualitative differences between inequities);
  • coordination (with other stakeholders);
  • coherence (across policies and other supporting interventions); and
  • protection (in terms of adequacy of the response of the respective education systems to protecting vulnerable groups).

Ultimately, the evaluation made a contribution towards improving future programming by adapting it to the specific groups of children out of school.

Sustainable Economic Development in Myanmar

Together with the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), CEval supported three projects on sustainable economic development in Myanmar, aiming to create the preconditions for identifying and assessing their impacts. The support focussed on three projects in the fields of vocational training, private sector development and financial sector reforms, and they should provide the basis for the development of a coherent programme on sustainable economic development.

Accordingly, it was the task of CEval, together with DEval:

  1. contribute to quality, relevance and completeness of the project conceptions and to the implementation of a coherent goal and impact system
  2. establish the preconditions for identifying and evaluating project impacts
  3. contribute to programme designs
  4. conduct an impact evaluation.

To that end, a multi-level analysis and consultation concept had been developed, which consists of

  1. developing an encompassing impact model,
  2. defining an encompassing table of indicators,
  3. implementing a baseline study, and
  4. developing an impact-oriented monitoring system.

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.