Evaluation of the “Strategic Communication on Refugee and Migration Abroad” of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany
In 2016 the Federal Foreign Office (AA) initiated a new communication strategy on flight and migration abroad. This strategy consists on the one hand of direct communication measures such as a dedicated website and information on social media channels, and on the other hand of indirect communication work through project funding by partner organizations. The aim of these efforts is to contribute to a better information base on flight and migration abroad and to strengthen humanitarian and international law principles.
The aim of the evaluation was to assess the achievement of objectives, effectiveness, economic efficiency and sustainability, as well as the impact of the funded projects and the direct communication activities of the Federal Foreign Office, and to use this as a basis for deriving recommendations for future funding and strategy development. At the same time, the funded projects were to be supported in setting up and implementing impact-oriented monitoring of their projects. The evaluation contained summative and formative elements. Thus, the evaluation was intended to support AA-internal learning in the area of communication strategy on the one hand, and to serve transparent accountability on the other.
The evaluation followed a theory-based, participatory approach in which a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social research were applied and triangulated together. The data collection included document and secondary analysis at project and programme level, guideline-based telephone interviews with persons in charge at the Federal Foreign Office, field studies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Nigeria, expert reports, partially standardised and experimental online surveys with project partners and target groups, and the participatory evaluation of an exchange meeting with representatives of the African diaspora.
Evaluation of the “PROBONO Teacher Training” Program in Tanzania
The PROBONO Teacher Training program aims at contributing to the improvement of education quality in Tanzania as the results of national final exams indicate a great need especially in the STEM subjects. This is done by delivering a 4-year in-service capacity training in form of workshop activities, providing equipment and infrastructure in their partner schools and fostering a network of education authorities and actors.
The final evaluation was based on the OECD-DAC critieria (relevance, effectiveness, impact, sustainability) in order to derive recommendations for shaping the program´s next phase.
The evaluation utilized different methods: next to interviews with the leadership of the project, project partner and head of schools; Focus Group Discussions gave voice to teachers, students and trainers. A comprehensive survey among all participating teachers and trainers enabled an in-depth quantitative analysis.
Accompanying evaluation of the support program of the AMASE Masters-program
Together with a consortium of three other European universities (Luleå Technical University, Sweden, Barcelona Tech, Spain and Université de Lorraine, France) the European School of Materials (EUSMAT) at Saarland University offers the international Masters programme AMASE (Advanced Materials Science and Engineering). Its students have the opportunity to participate in an Integration Week in Saarbrücken right at the beginning of their studies, which aims at providing an orientation with regards to the course of the AMASE programme as well as strengthening the students? soft skills through a number of trainings. After the first year of study in the two-year AMASE programme, the students furthermore have the opportunity to take part in a Professional Summer School aiming at facilitating their career entry.
Both events are part of the AMASE support programme and were evaluated within the context of an accompanying evaluation. The main goal was to determine the use of those events for their respective target groups. In methodological terms two standardized surveys as well as a number of focus group discussions were conducted with participants of the two events.
Integration of the Programme “Service Agency Communities in One World” (SKEW) in the M&E-System of Engagement Global
Engagement Global gGmbH was established in 2012 as a central institution to promote and coordinate the development policy commitment of civil society, municipal and private sector actors as well as for development policy information and education work. SKEW a program of Engagement Global focuses in particular on the promotion of municipal development cooperation. In order to be able to monitor both the appropriate use of the funds and above all their effectiveness, Engagement Global has created a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for all departments and programs. Since SKEW was excluded in the development of the monitoring system at that time, CEval and ISPO were commissioned to integrate SKEW into the organization-wide monitoring system.
As with the design of the company-wide M&E system, first the theory of change and indicators were reviewed or developed. Then the objectives and indicators were integrated into the strategical claims of Engagement Global. In order to complete the creation of a monitoring system for the SKEW, a data collection plan were created and the associated data collection instruments had been (further) developed.
Development and Implementation of a M&E-System for the ‘EinTanzHaus’
The ‘EinTanzHaus’ is expected to be a center for contemporary dance in a cultural monument of particular importance in the City of Mannheim. The EinTanzHaus team and its director Daria Holme have jointly created the preconditions to develop a dance center in Southern Germany with the exemplary conversion of a protected historic church building, which can open up new perspectives for the dance scene in Germany due to its infrastructure, its stage size, its central location and the artistic experience.
The task of CEval GmbH was to develop and implement a M&E concept that serves for the management of the project and the regular review of goal attainment and impact assessment. Therefore, a target system and value-added indicators for the ‘EinTanzHaus’ as well as a data collection plan were developed together with the stakeholders in a first step. Further, CEval GmbH was involved in all steps of the data collection, evaluation and interpretation and thus supports the parties involved in the strategic management of the project and the evaluation of the projects goal achievement.
Data collection for the certificate “Fan project in accordance with the National Plan for Safety in Sports”
In Germany, there is a dense network of social work institutions in the field of adolescent soccer fans (fan projects) that work in accordance with the National Plan for Safety in Sports (German: Nationales Konzept Sport und Sicherheit). A certification of those fan projects has been launched in 2010. Offering fan projects an instrument of quality control, the certification is intended to pursue multiple goals: (a) establishing a common standard for fan projects, (b) increasing confidence in the work of fan projects, and (c) improving the working context of fan projects. The certificate has been awarded by the Quality Management Group of the Centre for Fan Project Coordination of the German Sports Youth (German: Koordinationsstelle Fanprojekte bei der Deutschen Sportjugend). Members of the Quality Management Group belong to several stakeholder groups: soccer, federal authorities (for family affairs), science, and fan projects themselves.
During a first subproject (5/2015-6/2016), CEval GmbH (a) revised the certification process, (b) tested the revised certification process on five fan projects, and (c) developed a standardized, feasible concept for collecting information necessary for certification. Thereby the certificate attests fan projects high quality of work.
Within second subproject, CEval GmbH supported the nationwide roll-out of the revised certification by collecting all necessary information on all the remaining German soccer fan projects.
Impact analysis of the project “Kita im Aufbruch: Prozessbegleitung Richtung Nachhaltigkeit” [Kita im Aufbruch: Process support for sustainability in education]
The State Association for the Protection of Birds in Bavaria e.V. (Landesbund Vogelschutz, LBV) had implemented the environmental education project “Kita im Aufbruch: Process support for sustainability in education” between November 2020 and March 2022. The aim of the project was to contribute to the structural embedment of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in early childhood care by process support for selected Bavarian day-care centers. The CEval GmbH conducted an impact analysis of the project. By means of a before-and-after survey of day-care center staff, parents and day-care center operators, the impact of the project on the competencies of the pedagogical staff and the quality of educational offers as well as pedagogical processes in terms of ESD had been investigated. In addition, the CEval team further analyzed to what extent the project contributes to a holistic transformation of the learning and teaching environment towards a structural embedment of ESD in the daycare centers. In addition to pedagogical concepts, this also includes the areas of sustainable procurement and catering in the sense of a sustainable menu. In order to be able to clearly assign observed effects and impacts to the interventions of the project, the impact analysis was based on a quasi-experimental design including comparison groups (daycare centers without participation in process support) into the survey. The team combined, qualitative and quantitative survey methods in the process of data collection.
Evaluation of APPEAR projects (programme periods I and II)
The Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR) is conceived, guided and financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) to implement its “Higher Education and Scientific Cooperation” strategy in support of Higher Education and Research for Development on an academic institutional level. The funded projects are implemented by the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperation in Education, Science and Research (OeAD GmbH). APPEARs overall objective is to strengthen the institutional capacities in higher education, research and management through Academic Partnerships with Austrian higher education institutions and through scholarships. The partnerships aim to improve the general standards in higher education, research and management by means of knowledge sharing and designing innovative projects. The achievement of these objectives should finally contribute to effective and sustainable reduction of poverty in the partner countries.
The overarching goal of the evaluation was to assess the ongoing and completed projects of the APPEAR periods I and II. Thereby, it provided insights about the projects adherence to the APPEAR guidelines and basic principles during their implementation, and about the extent to which they were to achieve their objectives and results. Furthermore, the projects were assessed according to the OECD/DAC criteria Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability. The objective of the evaluation was to identify the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of the APPEAR projects and present conclusions, lessons learnt and recommendations for the remaining or future projects.
The evaluation made use of a variety of methods. Primary data was collected during project visits to Ethiopia and Uganda, interviews and focus group discussions with project partners in Austria as well as virtual interviews with staff and key stakeholders of two projects in Nicaragua. The data collection instruments also comprised semi-standardized surveys, programme and project documentations and previous programme evaluations.
Evaluation of CAPAQUA
CAPAQUA (Development of Educational and Research CAPacity in Eastern Africa for the Sustainable Management of AQUAatic Ecosystems) aims at enhancing the capacity of Eastern African Higher Education, Science and Technology (HEST) institutions. CAPAQUA is jointly implemented by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Egerton University (EGU), the Addis Ababa University (AAU), the Bahir Dar University and the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, National Fish and Other Aquatic Lives Research Center (EIAR-NFALRC). CAPAQUAs overall objective is to foster sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems and their resources in order to improve livelihoods in Eastern Africa and to contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The main purpose of the evaluation was to identify successes as well as weaknesses of the project, and to provide recommendations for the project partners to improve the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of possible future CAPAQUA projects. The evaluation was also analysing the extent to which the cross-cutting issue gender mainstreaming was applied and identified the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the expected project results and objectives. In order to assess the project, the evaluation focussed on the project period from October 2015 to September 2018.
A rich set of mainly qualitative data was collected by means of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with different stakeholders, programme participants, graduates as well as staff. Programme and project documentations provided secondary data and was complemented by primary data collected during focus group discussions. The geographic focus of the evaluation was the Eastern African region, with emphasis on Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, where empirical data was collected during short field visits. Additionally, Austrian institutions were visited and stakeholders interviewed.
Evaluation of the program “DLR-DAAD Research Fellowships”
Since 2008 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German AcademicExchange Service (DAAD) are jointly implementing a research fellowship programme with a focus on energy, aeronautics, space and transport related disciplines. The programme aims at contributing to the internationalization of DLR institutes as well as promoting researchers who maintain a relation to Germany as partners and friends. The goal of the evaluation was twofold: On the one hand, it should assess the programmes medium- and long-term effects. On the other hand, it identified potentials for improvement and come up with suggestions for necessary adaptions in view of a possible future continuation of the programme. In terms of methodology, the evaluation relied on a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. Among others, guided interviews, focus group discussions, on-site visits as well as an online survey were implemented.
