By Ricardo Ramírez and Dal Brodhead, DECI-3. The DECI-3 project name is “Designing Evaluation and Communication for Impact”. So what is impact? This blog entry tries to move beyond the numerous recommendations and well-tested practices that we have reported in this blog series. We suspect that when our partners read these blogs, the natural reaction [...]
By Ricardo Ramírez and Dal Brodhead, DECI-3. The following are elements of DECI of possible relevance to other programs: Element 1: DECI principles are enhanced with those of CAE (collaborative approaches to evaluation) While neither Utilization-Focused Evaluation nor Research Communication planning emphasize participation per se, in our experience the hybrid approach is a very effective [...]
By Ricardo Ramírez and Dal Brodhead, DECI-3. This blog provides a review of recent literature that proposes guiding questions to embed sustainability themes into a Theory of Change. It also highlights the view that “an essential part of any accountability regime is planning for sustainability…and that sustainability needs to be a critical aspect of the [...]
By Ricardo Ramírez and Dal Brodhead, DECI-3. In this blog, we draw on an article by Steven Teles and Mark Schmitt which appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (2011) entitled “The elusive craft of evaluating advocacy”; and on an article, we wrote in 2015 about practical wisdom entitled “Can participatory communication be taught?” We [...]
By Ricardo Ramirez, DECI-3. Rick Davies has provided us with a refreshing review of the challenges with Theories of Change and the evaluation consequences. His report focuses on the use of theory of change for evaluation purposes. He emphasizes participatory design to create ownership, something that will sound familiar to many readers. And yet, in [...]