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Evaluating Peacebuilding Technologies

BUILD PEACE CONFERENCE

NICOSIA, CYPRUS

APRIL 26, 2015

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Monitoring & Evaluation

In your personal life…

Who monitors you?

Who evaluates you?

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In the Nonprofit World…

Who mandates and pays for M & E?

The project funder

Who conducts M & E?

Either independent evaluators (paid for by project funder)…
Or the project implementer

Both funder and implementer are motivated to find success

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Reflective Practice

What

So What

What Next

ACTION

LEARNING

ADAPTATION

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What are We Evaluating?

Attitudinal change: building empathy
Enhanced communication: more timely & accurate information about threats and opportunities

Vertical communication—between local and national/international levels
Horizontal communication—within and among communities in conflict-affected regions

Strengthening relationships and social capital

“Cross-cutting bonds”

Strengthening conflict-management institutions

Alternative infrastructures for peace

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Social Capital as a Source of Resilience

“In societies where civic organizations are decimated by the state and no autonomous public space for humanitarian organization and deliberation exists, almost the entire society can go up in flames when the state begins to weaken…. Civil society, if present and especially if vibrant, can provide self-regulating mechanisms, even when the state runs into a crisis.”

--Ashutosh Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (2002), 286.

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Case Study Discussions

What is the problem? What is the opportunity?

What is the theory of change?

How can we test that theory and adapt to new information?

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Exercise 1: �The Problem and the Opportunity

What is the problem that your organization is trying to solve? Why is it important?
Why has the problem not yet been solved? What are the obstacles to effectively addressing this challenge?
What new approaches or unexploited opportunities may exist for addressing the challenge more effectively?

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Exercise 2: �Articulating Your Theory of Change

If your program were really successful, what would be different 2 years from now?
What changes will have occurred?
Which actors will bring about this change?

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Exercise 3:�Learning and Adaptation

What evidence might persuade you that your theory of change is incorrect or incomplete?
How will you detect potential unintended consequences of your program, either negative or positive?
How might you adapt your program in light of this knowledge?

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Back-Up Slides