Development Communication Advocacy and Education Tips and Tools

Development Communication, Advocacy and Education: Tips and Tools for Improving Evaluation Introduction Henri-Bernard Solignac Lecomte Informal Expert Workshop Bonn 19 March 2007

Why are we here? 2005 annual meeting of Network DAC Development Communicators: 2 priorities – Communicating about aid effectiveness – Evaluation Context – Mostly polls – Evaluation still recent – Weak demand within Ministries Yet, new aid paradigm, more pressure to evaluate 2

The Aid Effectiveness Paradigm Development Results 4 2 Alignment (Donors - Partner) 3 Harmonisation (Donors - Partner) Partners set the agenda Aligning with partners’ agenda Establishing common arrangements Using partners’ systems Simplifying procedures Sharing information Managing for Results 1 Ownership (Partner countries) 3

Evaluation today (survey of DAC members) 95% evaluate own activities either as ‘continuous self-evaluation’ or ‘once-off external evaluations’, while 16/19 DAC donors require partner organisations to evaluate certain activities. Function of investment, accountability: ad hoc approach rather than culture of learning? A variety of methodologies: – 8/10 / Communications Theory and Methodologies for evaluation – 5/10 / DAC Evaluation Guidelines – 4/10 / Project Cycle – 3/10 donors / Educational Methodologies 4

Tools & Indicators used for monitoring performance and evaluation Source: Questionnaire administered to DAC Heads of Information 2005/06 5

Donors: top challenges in evaluating their own Public Awareness/Development Education activities Measuring impact: how to Attribution: causal link between observed change and specific activity Resources available Indicators: process indicators, outcome indicators, short-term, longterm and indicators comparable between different activities … Culture of evaluation: how to change behaviour? Awareness-raising not treated as seriously as ‘development cooperation programmes’ by agencies/ministries; so less managerial demand for results 6

Donors: Top challenges in evaluating Public Awareness and Development Education through CSOs As above: resources available, how to measure impact, lack of culture of evaluation and comparable indicators … Plus NGO-specific challenges Ø lack of interest in evaluating long-term reach, especially when funded for short-term activities Ø diversity of NGO activities and targets Ø difficulty in having standard indicators Ø no established methodologies Ø few trainers Ø no expertise in evaluation Ø ‘trust’ to report negative conclusions from evaluation 7

Today How to evaluate? Evaluating what? How not to do it? Concrete steps and tools in evaluation Break out Plenary Tomorrow Getting Evaluation right A closer look at good examples Specific challenges: values, involving recipients, … Break out Plenary: Qs & As with expert panel Conclusions And then? 8

House Rules Informal Frank Language 9

Thank you! www. oecd. org/dev/opinion