Meta-Evaluation to improve learning, evaluation capacity development and sustainability: findings from a participatory evaluation project in Nepal

Recent studies suggest that meta-evaluation can be valuable in developing new approaches to evaluation, building evaluation capacities, and enhancing organizational learning. These new extensions of the concept of meta-evaluation are significant, given the growing emphasis on improving the quality and effectiveness of evaluation practices in the South Asian region. Following a review of the literature, this paper presents a case study of the use of concurrent meta-evaluation in the four-year project Assessing Communication for Social Change which developed and trialled a participatory impact assessment methodology in collaboration with a development communication Non-government organization (NGO) in Nepal. Key objectives of the meta-evaluation included to: continuously develop, adapt and improve the impact assessment methodology, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems and process and other project activities; identify impacts of the project; and build capacities in critical reflection and review. Our analysis indicates that this meta-evaluation was essential to understanding various constraints related to the organizational context that affected the success of the project and the development of improved M&E systems and capacities within the NG

Qualitative evaluation of Australian Caregiver's experiences of parent–child interaction therapy delivered in a community-based clinic setting

Background: Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is a short-term, evidence-based parent training program for parents of children aged 2–7 years with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs). The evidence-base for the effectiveness of PCIT is extensive but to date most studies have been quantitative in nature and conducted in university research clinics within the United States. Thus, understanding of the effectiveness and acceptability of PCIT in community-based settings in other countries, including Australia, is limited. Objective: This study used a qualitative methodology to explore Australian caregiver's perceptions of a standard PCIT program delivered at a community-based PCIT clinic. Method: Participants were nine mothers and one father who completed the PCIT program at the clinic for treatment of child DBD. Results: Thematic analysis yielded four major themes, namely “Parenting challenges before PCIT”; “Positive treatment outcomes” (sub-themes: improved child behaviour, increased parental confidence, increased insight into the child needs, and improved relationships with partner); “Program strengths” (sub-themes: child-directed interaction, parent-directed interaction, home practice, therapeutic relationship); and “Challenges experienced.”. Conclusions: These findings highlight the benefits of the PCIT program for families who are struggling with DBD in early childhood, and point to the potential positive impacts of disseminating PCIT within clinical settings more widely across Australia

Regeneration of aspen following partial and strip understory protection harvest in boreal mixedwood forests

Trembling aspen regeneration was studied in 2 types of partial harvest systems designed to harvest mature aspen but pro- tect immature spruce and encourage natural aspen regeneration. Two partial harvest systems, where the residual aspen was either left in strips or was dispersed uniformly, were compared to traditional clearcuts. After the first and second year since harvest, aspen sucker density and growth was similar between the 2 partial harvests, but was much lower than in the clearcuts. However, in the partial cuts the regeneration density was very much dependent on the location relative to residual trees. The density of regeneration was inversely related to the basal area of residual aspen; however, sucker height was inversely related to the basal area of the residual spruce. Although there were adequate numbers of suckers after partial harvest, their viability and contribution to the long-term productivity of these mixedwood stands is not clear

The influence of conversational content on college students’ safe sex intentions:A mixed method approach

Even though health campaign designers are advised to specifically focus on triggering conversations between people about health issues, there is still a lot unknown about what aspects of a conversation may contribute to safe sex behavior and intentions. Empirical research in this field so far has mainly focused on conversational occurrence rather than conversational content, and where content is taken into account, this mostly concerns self-reports. In this mixed method study, we looked into the quantitative effects of real-life conversations about safe sex, triggered by a safe sex message, on college students’ intentions related to safe sex. We then used a qualitative analysis to try and identify content-related aspects that may be related to the quantitative effects. Two weeks after filling in a questionnaire on their safe sex-related intentions, participants (N = 24) were instructed to watch and talk about a safe sex video with a conversation partner of choice, followed by filling in a questionnaire. The conversational data were analyzed qualitatively. The results suggest that the conversations increased safe sex-related intentions compared to pretest scores, and that content-related aspects such as conversational valence, type of communication behavior and behavioral determinants were related to these effects. Thus, our findings provide enhanced insight into the social norms and behavioral patterns related to safe sex, and indicate that it is important to look at conversational content in detail rather than to focus on mere conversational occurrence or quantitative effects

Equal Access Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit: Helping communication for development organisations to demonstrate impact, listen and learn, and improve their practices

Equal Access Nepal, EAN; Equal Access International, EAI; Queensland University of Technology; University of Adelaide; Professor Jo Tacchi; Dr Andrew Skuse; Dr Michael Wilmore; Dr June Lenni

Patterns and rates of viral evolution in HIV-1 subtype B infected females and males.

Biological sex differences affect the course of HIV infection, with untreated women having lower viral loads compared to their male counterparts but, for a given viral load, women have a higher rate of progression to AIDS. However, the vast majority of data on viral evolution, a process that is clearly impacted by host immunity and could be impacted by sex differences, has been derived from men. We conducted an intensive analysis of HIV-1 gag and env-gp120 evolution taken over the first 6-11 years of infection from 8 Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) participants who had not received combination antiretroviral therapy (ART). This was compared to similar data previously collected from men, with both groups infected with HIV-1 subtype B. Early virus populations in men and women were generally homogenous with no differences in diversity between sexes. No differences in ensuing nucleotide substitution rates were found between the female and male cohorts studied herein. As previously reported for men, time to peak diversity in env-gp120 in women was positively associated with time to CD4+ cell count below 200 (P = 0.017), and the number of predicted N-linked glycosylation sites generally increased over time, followed by a plateau or decline, with the majority of changes localized to the V1-V2 region. These findings strongly suggest that the sex differences in HIV-1 disease progression attributed to immune system composition and sensitivities are not revealed by, nor do they impact, global patterns of viral evolution, the latter of which proceeds similarly in women and men

Protocol for a mixed-methods investigation of quality improvement in early childhood education and care in Australia

International recognition of the early years as a crucial foundational period has led to the design and implementation of quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) that define, communicate, and monitor the components of quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The aim of these policies is to achieve effective quality assurance and improvement through a system-oriented approach to assessment and evaluation. Informed by ecological systems theory, this paper outlines a three-phase, mixed-methods design for researching a national sample of child care centres that showed overall improvement on the Australian National Quality Standard (NQS) assessment and rating (A&R) criteria. The study samples are drawn from a national dataset of centre-based child care services with two or more A&R rounds and an initial rating of Working Towards NQS (N = 1,935). The results of this study will provide insights into the macro-, exo-, meso- and micro-systems level factors and strategies that support quality in ECEC services