Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
Aspen Institute
Blog Posts
From Advocacy to Policy Change, with Evaluation in Between
We were intrigued that the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s summer edition featured a cover story on advocacy evaluation. Steven Teles & Mark Schmitt describe the complex nature of political processes and make the case for funding advocacy. And they outline the many challenges that evaluators, funders, and advocates face as we adapt traditional evaluation tools and create new ones to capture that complexity.
Advocacy evaluation can sometimes include checking to make sure that a useful policy is actually implemented. The Center for Global Development is promoting a tool (Forest Monitoring for Action) that can help us make sure that policies meant to prevent deforestation are in fact ensuring that trees aren’t cut. Can you prove a negative? In this case – yes!
The Connect U.S. Fund released a special report, On the Issues: The Freshman Senators of the 112th Congress. The report outlines the positions of the 2010 class of new Senators on human rights, climate change, international finance reform, foreign assistance, security and civil-military budgeting, and arms control. This is a great resource for advocates looking to strategize and plan outreach. The report contains no (unauthorized) lewd photos of Members of Congress. Thank goodness!
