Blog: Ex-post Evaluation
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – where have your ex-post evaluations, and learning from them, gone?
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - where have your ex-post evaluations, and learning from them, gone? A Linkedin colleague, Gillian Marcelle, Ph.D. recently asked me about ex-posts by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as more Caribbean...
Hard-wiring and Soft-wiring in Sustainability via health program examples
Hard-wiring and Soft-wiring in Sustainability via health program examples: by Laurence Desvignes and Jindra Cekan/ova Overview We all want things to last. Most of us joined the ‘sustainable development’ industry hoping our foreign aid projects not only do good while...
Sustainability of what and how do we know? Measuring projects, programs, policies…
On my way to present at the European Evaluation Society's annual conference, I wanted to close the loop on the Nordic and Netherlands ex-post analysis. The reason is, that we'll be discussing the intersection of different ways to evaluate 'sustainability' over the...
Can We Assume Sustained Impact? Verifying the Sustainability of Climate Change Mitigation Results (reposting a book chapter)
So excited to have our chapter verifying the 'sustainability' of the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund (GEF) funded projects through examining two tranches of evaluations. My co-writer colleague Susan Legro did a brilliant job pointing out GreenHouse Gasses (GHG)...
Follow our path on Ex-Post Sustainability and Resilience Seasonal Joy
Follow our path on Ex-Post Sustainability and Resilience Seasonal Joy Rarely do we get to teach, innovate, learn, and expand a hidden corner of one’s field. This is what is I am experiencing, and the Fund is sharing. Here is the Adaptation Fund’s ex-post project...
Aid providers: More puzzle pieces, including unexpected outcomes; ours is not the whole picture
Aid providers: More puzzle pieces, including unexpected outcomes; ours is not the whole picture When we did our first ex-post evaluation/ delayed final evaluation in 2006 in Niger for Lutheran World Relief (LWR) funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (pg75...
Valuing Voices Better Ex-Post Evaluation White Paper: Nordics & the Netherlands
Donors often talk about #SustainableDevelopment, and we know they try. But do they return #expost to #evaluate it? Here are lessons from #Nordic (#Norway, #Finland, #Sweden & #Denmark) and the #Netherlands in our #ValuingVoices #WhitePapers. Let us know what you...
Who is accountable for the ‘sustained development’ of those who suffer, and for how long? US/Czech and Kenyan Views
Who is accountable for the ‘sustained development’ of those who suffer, and for how long? Some of the rarely discussed myths of ‘sustainable development is that the aid we donors and implementers bring will help everyone, and that recipient governments can take...
“What IS Sustainability?” It depends on whom you ask: OECD, the UN, or Harvard Business School
“What IS Sustainability?” It depends on whom you ask: OECD, the UN, or Harvard Business School Recently I’ve had conversations where I had to define which sustainability we were talking about. Was it: ex-post-project sustainability of outcomes and impacts,...
Reblog USAID’s Unpacking the Drivers of WASH Sustainability
Reblog Unpacking the Drivers of WASH Sustainability In Nov 2019 I highlighted several water/ sanitation/ hygiene ex-posts happening at USAID's E3 Water Bureau. They've just come up with a synthesis, which is important, both in learning and transparency for...
Reblog Ex-post Eval Week: Exiting For Sustainability by Jindra Cekan
Ex-post Eval Week: Exiting For Sustainability by Jindra Cekan Reblogged from AEA: https://aea365.org/blog/ex-post-eval-week-exiting-for-sustainability-by-jindra-cekan-2/ January 22, 2021 Jindra Cekan Hello. My name is Jindra Cekan, and I am the Founder and Catalyst of...
Reblog Ex-post Eval Week: Measuring sustainability post-program –go in and stay for the learning! By Holta Trandafili
Ex-post Eval Week: Measuring sustainability post-program –go in and stay for the learning! By Holta Trandafili Reblog from AEA: https://aea365.org/blog/ex-post-eval-week-measuring-sustainability-post-program-go-in-and-stay-for-the-learning-by-holta-trandafili/ January...
ReBlog Ex-Post Eval Week Tips for Conducting an Ex-Post Evaluation by Wendi Bevins
Repost: Reblog: Eval Week: Tips for Conducting an Ex-Post Evaluation by Wendi Bevins Published on the American Evaluation Association AEA365blog series https://aea365.org/blog/ex-post-eval-week-tips-for-conducting-an-ex-post-evaluation-by-wendi-bevins/ January 19,...
Upcoming Jan Webinar: Lessons from Nordic / the Netherlands’ ex-post project evaluations: 14 Jan 2021
Upcoming Webinar: Lessons from Nordic / the Netherlands' ex-post project evaluations: 14 Jan 2021 In June-August 2020, Preston Stewart, our Valuing Voices intern, conducted through government databases of the four Nordic countries – Norway, Finland, Sweden, and...
Reblog: ITAD/CRS “Lessons from an ex-post evaluation – and why we should do more of them”
Reblog: ITAD/CRS "Lessons from an ex-post evaluation – and why we should do more of them" Reposted from: https://www.itad.com/article/lessons-from-an-ex-post-evaluation-and-why-we-should-do-more-of-them/ Even as evaluation specialists, rarely do we get the chance to...
What makes it Difficult to Evaluate Projects Ex-post: Lessons from WWF
What makes it Difficult to Evaluate Projects Ex-post: Lessons from WWF The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) generously shared lessons from two ex-posts and in particular what they felt should not have been done in terms of organizational learning. They originally...
Sustainability Ready: what it takes to support & measure lasting change webinar
On June 24th under GLocal's UNConference, "Co-creating our future stories of hope and action", Jindra Cekan, Holta Trandafili, and Isabella Jean presented their work on sustainability evaluations and exit strategies via local voices. We chaired a 2-hour discussion...
Sustaining “Sustainable Development”
Sustaining "Sustainable Development"? As a global development industry, we have almost no evidence of how (un)sustained the outcomes or impacts of 99% of our projects because we have never returned to evaluate them. But from early indications based on...
Wishing for ex-post evaluation Christmas Lights rather than Needles in Haystacks
Wishing for Ex-Post Evaluation Christmas Lights Rather than Needles in Haystacks This is what life of most ex-post evaluation researchers looks like, mostly without the counting congratulator: I recently spent three days looking for ex-post...
Learning from a river of ex-post project evaluations, tools and guidance… Thanks USAID!
Learning from a river of ex-post project evaluations and tools... Thanks USAID! Dear ex-post aficionados. It's raining ex-post project evaluations. Here's hoping learning from such evaluations in water/ sanitation, maternal/child health and even capacity building/...
Implementing, Scaling and Planning for Aid Exit and Sustainability
Reposted from: https://medium.com/@jindracekan/implementing-scaling-and-planning-for-aid-exit-and-sustainability-b1b92e70fb36?postPublishedType=initial Rarely do funders return to evaluate (ex-post) what lasts after aid projects end, but when they do, we can find...
Assuming Sustainability and Impact is Dangerous to Development (+ OECD/DAC evaluation criteria)
Assuming Sustainability and Impact is Dangerous to Development (+ OECD/ DAC evaluation criteria) We all do it; well, I used to do it too. I used to assume that if I helped my field staff and partners target and design funded projects well enough, and try...
Public and Private paths to Sustained Global Development Impacts
Public and Private paths to Sustained Global Development Impacts (Reposted from: https://medium.com/@jindracekan/public-and-private-paths-to-sustained-global-development-impacts-9b7523891fce) Six years. That’s how long ago I began researching proof of sustained...
Setting a higher bar: Sustained Impacts are about All of us
Setting a higher bar: Sustained Impacts are about All of us Global development aid has a problem which may already affect impact investing as well. It is that we think it's really all about us (individuals, wealthy donors and INGO implementers) not all of us (you, me,...
Investing in Youth for Project Effectiveness and Sustainability
Investing in Youth for Project Effectiveness and Sustainability One out of every six people on earth is between the ages of 15-24, says the UN. That is 1.2 billion youth. As one young leader says, “if the world’s problems are to be solved, it’s not going to happen...
Can’t wait to learn from post-project sustainability evaluation? If not why?
Can't wait to learn from post-project sustainability evaluation? If not why? A colleague who has been promoting ex-post sustainability evaluation in her organization questioned my claim that doing them had “benefits” for future programming. It was an...
Building the Evidence Base for Post Project Evaluation: A report to the Faster Forward Fund
Building the Evidence Base for Post Project Evaluation: A report to the Faster Forward Fund We are delighted to share Valuing Voices' report on the value added of post-project evaluation, which compares findings from eight end-of-project and subsequent...
How ‘new’ are our projects… and who is aiming at the right outcomes?
How 'new' are our projects... and who is aiming at the right outcomes? Valuing Voices exciting news is we have received research grant funding from the esteemed evaluator, Michael Scriven's Faster Forward Fund. We're looking into the value-added of...
Leading in Challenging Times: Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation (SEIEs)- reposted from Medium.com
Leading in Challenging Times: Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation (SEIEs) Some American organizations are retrenching, focusing more attention on domestic rather than international programming. Some are pulling back from critique of international...
Making up your mind. Prioritizing and making it happen
Making up your mind. Prioritizing and making it happen * As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness". ...
Maximizing what we’ve got… Time is now!
Maximizing what we've got... Time is now! We had a stirring conversation here in D.C. with someone very knowledgeable about sustainability; this person is a strong proponent of local ownership of all development. They also said...
What happens after the project ends? Country-national ownership lessons from post-project sustained impacts evaluations (Part 2)
What happens after the project ends? Country-national ownership lessons from post-project sustained impacts evaluations (Part 2) In Part 1 of our blog on lessons learned from post-project evaluations, we explored: How we do it matters for great results...
Learning about Sustainability and Exit Strategies from USAID’s Food Assistance Projects
Learning about Sustainability and Exit Strategies from USAID’s Food Assistance Projects USAID overall and Food for Peace (FFP) specifically have become far more progressive in the Obama Administration and under Administrator Rajiv Shah, with a much...
Sustained Impact post-project (ex-post)? Little proof at 3ie
Sustained Impact post-project (ex-post)? Little proof at 3ie Surely an organization that has received tens of millions of dollars of funding must track 'impact' as the actual long-term impact of projects. That is what I thought when I first began...
Sustainable Development Goals and Foreign Aid– How Sustainable and Accountable to Whom? Reposting Blog from LinkedIn Pulse
Sustainable Development Goals and Foreign Aid– How Sustainable and Accountable to Whom? Jindra Cekan, PhD of ValuingVoices World leaders will paint New York City red next week at the UN Summit adopting the new post-2015 development agenda. The agreed...
IEG Blog Series Part II: Theory vs. Practice at the World Bank
IEG Blog Series Part II: Theory vs. Practice at the World Bank In Part I of this blog series, I described my research process for identifying the level to which the World Bank (WB) is conducting participatory post project sustainability...
When Funders Move On (Originally published by Stanford Social Innovation Review 03/15)
When Funders Move On: Donors and nonprofits need to learn more about how to help program participants keep progressing after the support ends. Imagine standing in Detroit or South-Central Los Angeles. A team of experts has come to help you out of grinding poverty....
IEG Blog Series Part I: Pick a term, any term…but stick to it!
Pick a term, any term...but stick to it! Valuing Voices is interested in identifying learning leaders in international development that are using participatory post-project evaluation methods to learn about the...
Making money– is this a way to sustainable livelihoods? PACT’s Nepalese Lessons
Making money-- microenterprise-- is this a way to sustainable livelihoods? PACT's Nepalese Lessons Many Americans are steeped in the belief that we must 'pull ourselves up by our bootstraps', that hard work and especially faith in small businesses is the...
Learning from the Past… for Future Sustainability
Learning from the Past... for Future Sustainability Heading up Food Security for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was my first international development job in 1995-1999 and I have watched this organization grow in its commitment to program quality and learning/...
Czech it out! Great evaluation happening in the Czech Republic
Czech it out! Great evaluation happening in the Czech Republic One of the delights of living in another country is the surprises one encounters. For me, coming back to our second 'home', it was an evaluative surprise. For by connecting to the Czech Foreign...
What’s likely to ‘stand’ after we go? A new consideration in project design and evaluation
What's likely to 'stand' after we go? A new consideration in project design and evaluation This spring I had the opportunity to not only evaluate a food security project but also to use the knowledge gleaned for the follow-on project design. This Ethiopian Red Cross...
Data for whose good?
Data for whose good? Many of us work in international development because we are driven to serve, to make corners of the world better by improving the lives of those that live there. Many of us are driven by compassion to help directly through working...
Sustainability SPRINGing out all over the place… and Disrupting!
Sustainability SPRINGing out all over the place… and Disrupting So what is sustainability? You may think it's the climate's long-term wellbeing and how to gauge changes to that. You may think it's linked...
Jindra Cekan, Ph.D. has used participatory methods for 30 years to connect with participants, ranging from villagers in Africa, Central/ Latin America and the Balkans to policy makers and Ministers around the world for her international clients. Their voices have informed the new Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation, other M&E, stakeholder analysis, strategic planning, knowledge management and organizational learning.