though i have read several of david booth‘s papers on country ownership, i appreciate craig valters pointing me (conversation here) to booth’s joint work with sue unsworth on doing development in ways that are politically smart and locally led. the whole paper is worth a read. this paragraph stood out: the question of local leadershipContinue reading “nice paragraph on local leadership”
Category Archives: Research
Brief Thought on Commitment-To-Analysis Plans
First, I am starting a small campaign to push towards calling ‘pre-analysis plans’ something else before the train gets too far from the station. Something like ‘commitment to analysis plans’ or ‘commitment to analysis and reporting plans.’ I have two reasons for this. PAP just isn’t a super acronym; it’s kind of already taken. IContinue reading “Brief Thought on Commitment-To-Analysis Plans”
Thinking More About Using Personas/Personae In Developing Theories of Change
I have previously advocated, here (and here), for taking a ‘persona’ or character-based approach to fleshing out a theory of change. This is a way of involving a variety of stakeholders (especially those closer to the ground, such as intended beneficiaries and street-level implementer’s) in discussions about program and theory of change development — evenContinue reading “Thinking More About Using Personas/Personae In Developing Theories of Change”
Back to Basics — Trusting Whether and How The Data are Collected and Coded
This is a tangential response to the lacour and #lacourgate hubbub (with hats off to the summaries and views given here and here). While he is not implicated in all of the comments, below, I am mostly certainly indebted to Mike Frick for planting the seed of some of the ideas presented below, particularly onContinue reading “Back to Basics — Trusting Whether and How The Data are Collected and Coded”
Thinking About Building Evaluation Ownership, Theories of Change — Back From Canadian Evaluation Society
This week I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Evaluation Society (#EvalC2015) meeting in Montreal, which brought together a genuinely nice group of people thinking not just hard a-boot evaluation strategies and methodologies but also how evaluation can contribute to better and more transparent governance, improving our experience as global and national citizens —Continue reading “Thinking About Building Evaluation Ownership, Theories of Change — Back From Canadian Evaluation Society”
Oops, Got Long-Winded About ‘Median Impact Narratives’
*A revised version of this post is also available here. I finally got around to reading a post that had been flagged to me awhile ago, written by Bruce Wydick. While I don’t think the general idea of taking sampling and representatives seriously is a new one, the spin of a ‘median narrative’ may beContinue reading “Oops, Got Long-Winded About ‘Median Impact Narratives’”
Something to Ponder: Cataloging The Evaluations Undertaken in a Country
Working my way through “Demand for and supply of evaluations in selected Sub-Saharan African countries,” which is a good read. there are several great points to note and consider but just one that i want to highlight here: In no country was there a comprehensive library of evaluations that had been undertaken [there]. This seemsContinue reading “Something to Ponder: Cataloging The Evaluations Undertaken in a Country”
Gem From the Anti-Politics Machine: They Only Seek the Kind of Advice They Can Take
I am starting to re-read the Anti-Politics Machine after some time… and, of course, started with the epilogue — the closest Ferguson comes to giving advice from his vivisection. here’s a gem that remains relevant ten-plus years later, in spite of major political changes in southern Africa: Certainly, national and international ‘development’ agencies do constituteContinue reading “Gem From the Anti-Politics Machine: They Only Seek the Kind of Advice They Can Take”
What Does It Mean To Do Policy Relevant Evaluation?
A different version of this post appears here. For several months, I have intended to write a post about what it actually means to do research that is ‘policy relevant,’ as it seems to be a term that researchers can self-ascribe* to their work without stating clearly what this entails or if it is anContinue reading “What Does It Mean To Do Policy Relevant Evaluation?”
Thinking About Stakeholder Risk and Accountability in Pilot Experiments
This post is also cross-posted here in slightly modified form. Since I keep circling around issues related to my dissertation in this blog, I decided it was time to start writing about some of that work. As anyone who has stood or sat near to me for more than 5 minutes over the past 4.25Continue reading “Thinking About Stakeholder Risk and Accountability in Pilot Experiments”
Heather E. Lanthorn 