Emerging Opportunities: Monitoring and Evaluation in a Tech-Enabled World

Various trends are impacting on the field of monitoring and evaluation in the area of international development. Resources have become ever more scarce while expectations for what development assistance should achieve are growing. The search for more efficient systems to measure impact is on. Country governments are also working to improve their own capacities for evaluation, and demand is rising from national and community-based organizations for meaningful participation in the evaluation process as well as for greater voice and more accountability from both aid and development agencies and government.These factors, in addition to greater competition for limited resources in the area of international development, are pushing donors, program participants and evaluators themselves to seek more rigorous – and at the same time flexible – systems to monitor and evaluate development and humanitarian interventions.However, many current approaches to M&E are unable to address the changing structure of development assistance and the increasingly complex environment in which it operates. Operational challenges (for example, limited time, insufficient resources and poor data quality) as well as methodological challenges that impact on the quality and timeliness of evaluation exercises have yet to be fully overcome

Using mixed methods in monitoring and evaluation : experiences from international development

This paper provides an overview of the various ways in which mixing qualitative and quantitative methods could add value to monitoring and evaluating development projects. In particular it examines how qualitative methods could address some of the limitations of randomized trials and other quantitative impact evaluation methods; it also explores the importance of examining"process"in addition to"impact", distinguishing design from implementation failures, and the value of mixed methods in the real-time monitoring of projects. It concludes by suggesting topics for future research -- including the use of mixed methods in constructing counterfactuals, and in conducting reasonable evaluations within severe time and budget constraints.Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Science Education,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences

A Model for Judicial Leadership: Community Responses to Juvenile Substance Abuse

Outlines the Reclaiming Futures initiative, which brings juvenile courts and systems of care together under judges' leadership in a team effort toward systemic change. Offers lessons learned, guidance, and recommendations for starting similar projects

Methodological Issues in the Evaluation of International Community Participation Projects

International donor agencies and governments of developing countries are seeking waysto increase the involvement of project beneficiaries in the design and management ofdevelopment projects. However, very little systematic evidence is available on thepotential costs and benefits of community participation (CP). The evaluation of CP iscomplicated by a division between advocates of efficiency and empowerment objectives.Achieving consensus on evaluation strategies is further complicated by the closeassociation between empowerment objectives and qualitative evaluation methods on theone hand and efficiency objectives and quantitative evaluation methods on the other. Anumber of methodological issues are discussed with respect to the application ofcost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies,case studies and participant observation in the evaluation of CP. A number of genderissues which affect the evaluation design also are discussed. The final section proposesa research agenda to improve our understanding of the potential contributions ofcommunity participation to the design, implementation and sustainability of developmentprojects

Integrating Big Data Into the Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Programmes

This report provides guidelines for evaluators, evaluation and programme managers, policy makers and funding agencies on how to take advantage of the rapidly emerging field of big data in the design and implementation of systems for monitoring and evaluating development programmes. The report is organized into two parts. Part I: Development evaluation in the age of big data reviews the data revolution and discusses the promise, and challenges this offers for strengthening development monitoring and evaluation. Part II: Guidelines for integrating big data into the monitoring and evaluation frameworks of development programmes focuses on what a big data inclusive M&E system would look like. The report also includes guidelines for integrating big data into programme monitoring and evaluation