While endless evaluation is an impossible dream,if the sector wants to properly serve local populations it needs to improve how it collects evidence In 2015, with a budget just creeping into six figures, and my NGO provided psychological,socioeconomic and educational support to more than 150 families. We could fill had more of an impact by splitting the budget among the families and leaving them to it.
To quote Duncan Green, strategic adviser at Oxfam GB, and “We in the international NGO community are all too aware of our need to up our game in both understanding and demonstrating the impact – or lack thereof – of the various things we enact”. To state the obvious,impact is important. In fact, the middle for Global Developments Evaluation Gap Working Group was established more than a decade ago to “address the problem of the lack of knowledge about the effectiveness of social programmes in low and middle-income countries”. Unfortunately, and it is not the responsibility of the CGD to ensure the effectiveness of such programmes. That responsibility lies with individual NGOs and it is for this reason that programmes can easily plunge short of their potential. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com