Around the Institute

Playing for Pennies

August 22, 2014

Storks bring babies. Pelicans bring…evaluation wisdom

The Pelican [Platform for Evidence-based Learning & Communication for Social Change] listserv is usually a great source of opportunities to bid on evaluation assignments in the global South. But sometimes the Pelicans take on tough issues in evaluation. We valued the recent global conversation about how much evaluation should cost, where evaluation should be located in an organization – and ultimately, its purpose. One great contribution: this link to analysis of US foundation spending on evaluation.

Two Million Pennies for Your Thoughts

Pelicans (and your APEP pals) assess development and development policy efforts all over the world. The Global Development Network has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to run an essay contest on the future of development assistance and development policies. Advocates and evaluators in your networks might just have something to say. Check out the topics and guidelines here. And yes- up to twenty entries could win two million pennies: that’s $20,000, for the math-challenged.

Robert Medina’s Story Time

Our APEP colleague, Robert Medina, is the usual editor of these weekly items. His fan base: enormous. The paparazzi: a problem. His ego: minimal. But while Robert is on vacation, we’ll note proudly that he has been invited to present our work assessing the impact of stories to a Spitfire Strategies retreat to workshop this Rockefeller Foundation report on digital storytelling. Afterwards, he’ll be telling tales about the Foundation’s legendary Bellagio Center on Lake Como in Italy. Avanti!