The July 1 webinar we mentioned yesterday can be accessed via the webinars section of the new My M and E website (www.mymande.org).
Michael Quinn Patton,Founder and Director, Utilization-focused evaluation, and former President of the American Evaluation Association, spoke on future trends in evaluation.
Marco Segone, Senior evaluation specialist, Systemic management, UNICEF Evaluation Office, and former Vice President and Senior advisor to the Executive Board, IOCE, spoke on Moving from policies to results by developing national capacities for country-led monitoring and evaluation systems
The powerpoint slides for their presentation are also available.
Some interesting issues and questions were raised, including:
the need for evaluation capacity building to focus on the demand end (being able to manage and use evaluation) as well as the supply end (having the skills to conduct evaluation),
and whether ‘self-evaluation’ is an approach highly relevant given the Paris declaration or a term that should be avoided since it can carry implications of self-deceptive, inaccurate performance assessment – ( a concern made all the more worrying by the Dunning-Kruger Effect — where our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence).
Jane at Real Evaluation
Patricia at CIRCLE (RMIT)
I joined webinar yesterday and enjoyed. Thanks from Professor Patton, Marco, other moderators and about 120 participants. Only remain one of my questions without answer.
I think Marco yesterday rich speaking was Nice option selecting. He talked about National Evaluation Capacity Building. My question from Marco was:
What is his idea about strong believe and action and policy in gold standard use in donor evaluation systems & United Nations evaluation systems in relation of ECB?
I pose my question to Marco, Eval Talk & this weblog for making wealthy debates.
Best
Moein
Moein: Having managed a M&E system for a number of years for a USDOE program, I would suspect that donor systems similarly have a tendency to conform more to donor needs rather than those of the donees. As a result, their M&E systems may create perverse incentives for donees to distort information to fit what they believe donors will want, approve, and reward. Thus the gold standard M&E system would promote a shared construction of reality that both (a) meets the accountability needs of donors and (b) empowers donees to conduct their own analyses and interpret information to fit their own needs.
As for the UN, its IT infrastructure should reflect its underlying social architecture (i.e., charter, values, protocols). Therefore, its ideal M&E system would, by design, also promote an optimal balance between North-South information and power relations.
Patricia: I read the NYT articles with great interest. The quote below, with slight modification, particularly resonated for me as I think it reflects the ideal state of every social interaction:
“‘When an emotion is sincere and profound, and it stirs the human soul, there is no room for [anxiety].’ And in that we have the best so far that we have been given to learn.”
- Babinski (1913) as quoted by Breton & Aragon (La Révolution Surrealiste, No. 11, 1928)
To construct this context is to practice genuine evaluation, for me at least.
Chad