Presentations &
Publications
Jindra’s Videos
Welcome to Valuing Voices… ‘They’ are ‘us’; how do we do excellent development programming as partners? Hope you enjoy our videos!
Incorporating Sustainability Lessons into Evaluation Frameworks
SmartHeadTalks Interview
Sustainable Development Interview
Community participation is integral for sustainability 1/14
PRESENTATIONS
Women’s Club of Richmond. 2023. “Sustainability: How to help it happen” The 1-hour presentation covers how ex-post-project sustainability has and has not been evaluated and learned from, and what investing in any grassroots charities should consider.
Gates India, 2022 Meghalaya Evaluation Summer School “Thinking Explicitly about Sustainability Up Front:” The sessions focus on how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes can help the Indian State and Districts navigate toward desired outcomes, including using Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation. August 2022
European Evaluation Society Conference ‘Evaluation at a Watershed: Actions and Shifting Paradigms for Challenging Times, Presentation “Long- And Short-Term Dilemmas In Sustainability Evaluations” Copenhagen, June ’22
Dopady udržitelnosti v byznysu (česky); Smarthead Seminar on Sustainablity Results on Business Udržitelnost (in Czech) Zárí/ Sept ’21
“How To Know About Longer-term Effects From Adaptation Initiatives?” European Evaluation Society Roundtable, Sept ’21
“Planning for Sustainability: Towards a Role for Evaluations and Measurement in Planning Exit Strategies” University of Toronto’s Evaluation Centre, Mar ’21
“Lessons from Nordic and the Netherlands’ ex-post project evaluations” Webinar and Mighty Networks Sustainability Network, Jan ’21
“Exiting for Sustainability” Valuing Voices Webinar Series and Mighty Networks Sustainability Network, Nov ’20, Dec ’20
“Why Measure and Evaluate Corporate Sustainability Projects?” Smarthead Talks, Dec ’20
“Sustaining All of our Hard Work: Planning a Sustainable #Exit from the Start” at the Vienna Evaluation Network, Oct ’20.
Anglo-American University Eco-Week, Presentation on Climate & Food Security, Prague, Czech Rep. Nov ’19
USAID Local Solutions Co-Creation Workshop, on the Changing Role of the Donor Oct ’19
IDEAS Conference and the 3rd International Conference on Environment “Sustaining Climate Action: issues in Verifying Post project Impacts in Climate Change Mitigation” Prague, Czech Rep. Oct ’19
University of Toronto, Towards a Science of Evaluation July ’19
Universities of Oxford & Cambridge, Prague Speaker Series, Feb ’19
Wonder Woman Tech Conference Speaker/ Mentor, #WeAreFuture, London
European Evaluation Society bi-annual Conference, Thessaloniki, Oct ’18:
- Panel: How Sustained and Resilient are our Impacts? (w/World Bank, DFAT, Oxford)
- Round-table: Accountability in Evaluation for Sustained and Resilient Impacts
- Panel: Navigating Spectacular Ambitions: The Importance of Thinking Evaluatively in Challenging the Sustainable Development Goals of “No One Left Behind”
- Panel: Participatory Approaches to Resilience Measurement: Who are we Listening to?
US Agency for International Development, Local Systems Community “Sustainable Development? Prove It! Improve It!” (via Adobe Connect w/Flash) Nov ’17
University of Toronto, Evaluation Centre, “Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation” Presentation Apr ’17
SEIE Webinar for DME for Peace: “Built to last? Embedding sustainability in the project cycle” Webinar Presentation Mar ’17
CARE International Eastern Central Southern African (ECSA) Strategic Conference, Nairobi, Invited to Present Dec ’16
American Evaluation Association (Oct ’16, Atlanta): Panel: Barking up a Better Tree: Lessons about Sustained and Emergent Impact Evaluations (SEIE) presentation (Cekan, Rogers B, Rogers P, Zivetz)
European Evaluation Society (Sept ’16, Maastricht the Netherlands):
* Workshop on Sustained and Emerging Impact Evaluation and Evaluative Thinking (Cekan w/ Sharrock)
* Panel: Sustaining development impact in an era of sustainable development goals (SDGs): wishful thinking, or a bright future? (w/Davies, Ofir, Sridharan)
* Panel: The fourth industrial revolution, the 2030 agenda and the “grand challenges” for evaluation (w/Sridharan, Davies, Ofir)
Webinar on Post-project Sustainability and well-planned Project Exit with INTRAC from 49m (Sept ’16, UK) (Cekan/Zivetz, Pallas with Hayman)
International Society for Performance Improvement at 2016 Conference, Developing Countries track Presenter on “Learning from the Past for an Improved International Future” Apr ’16
International Year of Evaluation, YouTube Jindra Cekan’s EvalStory (2015)
CRS Worldwide Webinar “Learning from How it All Turned Out” Oct ’15 presenting CRS Niger, Post-Project Evaluation of food security projects”.
Sirius XM Radio/U Penn Wharton Business School “Dollars and Change” program Audio Presentation on “Social Impact and Sustainability Interview“, Mar ’15
Czech Evaluation Society Presenter on “Post-Project Sustainable Evaluation”, June ’15 Conference
Wangeningen M&E for Responsible Innovation Conference Presenter on “Who’s Listening? Community-Led Self-Sustainability Post-Project Evaluation” Holland. Mar 15r
Two presentations at the American Evaluation Association’s Annual Conference (Colorado, USA) Oct ’14”When do we Value Participant Voices for Sustained Impact? Now!” and “Evaluation of international capacity building efforts toward fostering sustainable solutions”
The World Bank Group, Spring Meetings, Civil Society Forum Panelist Apr ’14 “Engaging NGOs/CSOs in Economic Development and Public Policy Dialogues for Sustainable Development” Session
Ethiopian Red Cross, “Food Security Final Evaluation and Sustainable Future Design” (2014)
Cornell University, Institute for African Development Seminar Series “Monitoring and Evaluation: Listening to One’s Clients Ex-post” (2013) link
Appreciative Inquiry group of DC. Presentation on using Appreciative Inquiry for Organizational Learning at USAID’s Policy Planning and Learning and 13 other Bureaus (2013) link
Society for International Development on the Power of the Appreciative Question regarding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Advocacy Evaluation (2009) link
CRS Participatory Rural Appraisal/ Rapid Rural Appraisal (PRA/RRA)including a food security chapter by Cekan (2008)
Many others in the previous 20 years including at US Dept. of Agriculture, AAAS, InterAction’s African Global Forum, UNICEF, John F. Kennedy School of Government- Harvard University, the Red Cross/ Red Crescent Africa meetings, University of Cambridge (UK).
IMPORTANT GUIDANCE
RE: EX-POST EVALUATION:
Preconditions to consider for doing an SEIE either at project end or during project design and implementation by Valuing Voices: Evaluability Checklists (2017)
Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation (SEIE) overview of a new thematic approach to post-project/ ex-post evaluation SEIE Guidance
Adaptation Fund Ex-post Evaluation process and training for sustainability and resilience to climate change (2021)
Building the Evidence Base for Post-Project Evaluation, a report to Michael Scriven’s Faster Forward Fund (2017)
World Health Organization ex-post project manual! They drew on our research and made a great guide: * UN’s WHO Practical Guidance for Conducting Post-Project Evaluations in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (2019)
Tips for Ex Post Evaluations of International Development Projects by LWR & WV (2020)
Project Concern International Resource Guide for Enhancing the Potential for Sustainable Impact (2014)
Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation (SEIE) overview of new thematic approach to post-project/ ex-post evaluation SEIE Guidance
Evaluating the Sustainability of Health Programs: A Literature Review. African Evaluation Journal, by Ishola and Cekan, 2019.
USAID Ex-post Evaluation Discussion Note (2021)
One of my videos presenting on ex-post project at University of Toronto 2017*
International Year of Evaluation Cekan EvalStory
Our Youtube videos ValuingVoices videos
PUBLICATIONS
Cekan J., Legro S. (2022) Can We Assume Sustained Impact? Verifying the Sustainability of Climate Change Mitigation Results. In: Uitto J.I., Batra G. (eds) Transformational Change for People and the Planet. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham.
Cekan, J. (2022)“Promises made and promises unfulfilled: Focusing evaluations after COP26” in Evaluation, What should evaluation learn from COP 26? Views of evaluation practitioners
Adaptation Fund documents our work on ex-post sustainability and resilience research/guidance 2021
Preston Stewart, Jindra Cekan VALUING VOICES BETTER EX-POST EVALUATION WHITE PAPER SERIES PART 1: Toward Building Better Evaluation Practices: A Series on the ExPost Evaluation Practices of Nordic Countries and the Netherlands: The Search June ’21
Foluso Ishola, Jindra Cekan, Evaluating the sustainability of health programmes: A literature review July ’19
“Impact Investing – International Development’s New Holy Grail?” Medium ’18
Transformation Forum: “Valuing Voices: Why the 2030 Agenda Starts with Them“ Jindra Cekan, PhD, Carolien de Bruin and Peter Kimeu, Mar ’18
The case for post project evaluation, Valuing Voices Final Report for Michael Scriven’s Faster Forward Fund published June ’17, presented at the American Evaluation Association Conference Nov ’17, featured on Better Evaluation Dec ’17
American Evaluation Association 365: Measuring SEIE Impacts Apr ’17
“In 17 years, 1.6 trillion dollars spent on Sustainable Development; Very few undergo post-project evaluation” Six Degrees News Interview Oct ’17
“Missing Link: Sustained and Emerging Impact Evaluations“. Better Evaluation, May ’16
“How to Foster Sustainability“. Global Policy Journal, Vol. 7, Issue 2, May ’16
European Evaluation Society “How to Foster Sustainability“. July ’15
American Evaluation Association blog “Rolling the Dice: Impact or Self-Sustainability?” AEA365 Article, Mar ’15
Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) “When Funders Move on“. Mar ’15
American Evaluation Association, “Furthering Community self-Sustainability of our Projects” (2014) link
USAID’s PPL/LER “Monitoring and Evaluation Platforms: Considerations for Design and Implementation Based on a Survey of Current Practices” Discussion Note (key researcher, 2013). Also see Learning work: link
“Increasing Nigerien women’s incomes, increasing peace: triangulation and unexpected results, Lutheran World Relief’s ARVIP project” PLA Notes- IIED UK (2013) link
“Toward a Conceptual Framework of Household Coping: Reflections from Rural West Africa” Cambridge University Press reprinted in 2011 from original Africa , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , April 1998
“Appreciative Strategic Planning at World Vision USA” link Axiom News 2011
“Improving International Food Security” in LBX Journal (2011) link ***
“One Chance to Get it Right: 7 Key Pillars for Achieving Food Security” for Women Thrive 2011 link and Gender in Agric Bibliography: link
Published “A Wealth of Knowledge: Case Studies in Learning From a PVO’s Most Precious Assets” article in Monday Developments with G. McAuliffe http://www.scribd.com/doc/17003730/MDDec2008
“Armenia Food Security Assessment”, Food Aid Management Food Forum newsletter, IV Q, 2001. Washington, DC
Field tools: “ARC Food Security Proposal Review Checklists and Tools,” ************** “Food Ration Calculation Exercise”, “White Paper”. 2001 and in http://www.foodaid.org/food3.htm ***
“Red Cross’ Humanitarian Mission to Assist the Most Vulnerable — Safety Nets Programs and The American Red Cross.” Food Aid Management Food Forum Newsletter, II Q, 2000. Washington, DC
“Food security” chapter in CRS PRA/RRA Manual, Spring 1999. Baltimore, MD.
“Toward a conceptual framework of household ‘coping’ – reflections from rural West Africa” Co-authored with Alayne Adams and Rainer Sauerborn, Harvard’s Center for Population and Development. Africa. Vol 68, No. 2. Fall 1998
“NGO recommendation for U.S. Action Plan on Food Security: Mini-paper #13 – ‘Food aid to promote food security’’’. Food Forum (FAM). With Ellen Levinson and TJ Ryan. Nov/Dec 1997, Washington, DC.
“Monetization – Links to Food Security?’’’ Relief and Rehabilitation Network Series, ODI. With Amy MacNeil and Steve Loeggering. November 1996. London: UK
“Foreign Aid Cuts – Food Security Effects’’ Bread for the World Annual Report. With Kim Miller. 1996. Silver Spring, MD.
“Towards a conceptual framework of household coping: reflections from rural West Africa” 1998, reissued online in 2011
“Listening to One’s Clients: A Case Study of Mali’s Famine Early Warning System (SAP) and Rural Producers”. PhD thesis at the Fletcher School 1994.
“Five Malian Villages During the ‘Soudure’: Counter- Seasonal Coping Strategies Observed” Disasters. March 1992. London: UK.
Many other Internal Reports and Papers in the 1990s and 2000s including for the American Red Cross as Programming Guidance, Catholic Relief Services Occasional Paper Series for Issues in Program Design, CARE’s internal programming, etc.
Recent Publications & Capabilities
RECENT:
- Sustained Exit? Prove it or Improve it! Webinar 1, 6 November 2020, Zoom/ Eventbrite.
- Sustaining All of our Hard Work, Webinar, Vienna Evaluation Network, 1 Oct 2020
Book us to speak!
CAPABILITIES
- Valuing Voices Capabilities Statement Capabilities Overview
- Valuing Voices Talking Points Talking Points 1page
- Post Project Evaluability Checklists
- Valuing Voices Flyer
- Accountability Capabilities