Clients

“There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use“

- Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe

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Current clients

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Praxis India

• “Avahan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s (BMGF) HIV project in India approached Praxis in late 2008,to help with the creation of a framework for measuring the community mobilisation efforts of Avahan and create a baseline. Given that there were no ready made standards or models available for such a measurement, Praxis embarked on a long iterative process of developing a framework drawing on its years of experience and in consultation with some renowned experts in the field – from the community and from the academic/ international development sector. The result is a framework that expands the two objectives of the Avahan Logframe and makes it measurable.” I have supported Praxis with advice on the use of weighted checklists and rating scales as a means of integrating the component parts of their framework.

Individual consultants (Sweden, Netherlands)

• This year I have started to provide online technical support to other consultants (with whom I have had some previous working relationship). I am charging on an hourly rate, based on my median daily rate charged for other work. I use a combination of Skype and MS Shared View to communicate by voice, text chat and shared computer screens. Both programs can be downloaded free.

ALNAP, in UK

• ALNAP is a network of 62 organisations, including bilateral donors, UN agencies, international NGOs, members of the Red Cross movement, research institutions and consultancies. ALNAP “was established in 1997, following the multi-agency evaluation of the Rwanda genocide. It is a collective response by the humanitarian sector, dedicated to improving humanitarian performance through increased learning and accountability”. My task is to help the Secretariat to develop a monitoring and evaluation plan, that will help ALNAP assess progress towards the objectives of their 2008-2013 strategy.

Global Witness, in UK

• “Global Witness investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption”.  “Emissions from deforestation are very significant – they are estimated to represent more than 18% of global emissions, a share greater than is produced by the global transport sector”.  Global Witness have recently been given a grant by the DFID Governance and Transparency Fund, to implement their “Making the Forest sector Transparent” project in eight countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. I will be helping with the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the project, and its implementation. The challenge will be to develop a framework that is coherent overall, given the fact that Global Witness is working with a large number of independent organisations, some directly and some at one or more remove. This work started in early 2009.

The Guardian, in UK

• External evaluator for the Katine project in Uganda. Funded by The Guardian and Barclays Bank, and implemented by AMREF. For more information, read my Evaluating Katine blog. What is great about this project? – the degree of public transparency provided via the award winning Guardian website. This work started in early 2008.

AusAID, in Indonesia

• Leading the Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Team, conducting annual reviews of four maternal and neonatal health programs in eastern Indonesia. A good opportunity to learn about what works and does not work when attempting to involve multiple donors and implementing agencies in annual reviews of their projects (in the spirit of the Paris Declaration). This work started in 2006 and will end in 2010.

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Recent clients

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Communication for Social Change Initiative, in USA

• “The CFSC Consortium works throughout the world advocating for and implementing participatory communication approaches designed to help people make the shifts they want and need in public values and beliefs that are essential for long-term social change”. Including in the area of HIV/AIDS. I am helping to develop “an expanded M&E framework for Social Change Communication: towards more innovative, “alternative” approaches and methods”. My focus will be on the uses of social network analysis tools for the M&E of social change communications

The African Development Bank, in Tunisia

• How do you assess the progress and impact of a decentralisation process involving 25 country offices, across Africa? Along with PARC colleagues, I will be using MSC to identify significant changes in ADB practice in four sampled countries that would warrant further investigation in a subsequent “Evaluation Of The Decentralisation Process In The African Development Bank”.

Praxis India

• Planning a workshop series for new and experienced users of the Most Significant Change technique, for November 2008. The challenge? How to access and make use of the experience of others who have used MSC, in many ways in different settings, over the last few years.

Academy for Educational Development, in Washington

• Review of the Evaluation Plan for SCALE Demonstration in Uttar Pradesh, India for Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy. SCALE uses a social networking approach at an organizational level to accelerate the diffusion of innovations related to healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.

Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, in Sweden

• Presentations at a seminar on ‘Methods for monitoring and evaluation of idea-based and process-oriented organisations’, 22 April 2008. The challenge? (amongts others) How to introduce a theory-of-change perspective to an organisation that has never really been challenged to articulate their strategy in an evaluable form.

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Other activities

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Asia Pacific Biochar Conference

• Supporting the work of the conference participants, through prizes

Monitoring and Evaluation News

• Managing the website and moderating the associated email lists (2200+ members)

Overseas Development Institute (ODI)

• Presentation on “Simple Approaches to Complexity” at ODI seminar July 9, 2008: Exploring the Science of Complexity in Aid Policy and Practice

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

• Presentation on “Network models and impact assessment” at the Expert Round Table on WASH Governance and Institutional Change, Delft, The Netherlands on May 13th and 14th 2008

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