Measuring Women’s Empowerment Globally
Our friends at CARE USA think about impact all the time – what it means, how their programs work to achieve it, and how to measure it. They’ve compiled an impressive list of effective practices for measuring impact on women’s empowerment internationally in a recent article published in Gender & Development. Learn to conduct a “vulnerability analysis.” Systematically identify and map target and stakeholder groups. Leverage partnerships with other civil society organizations to achieve desired outcomes. This paper is chock-full of practical, evaluative wisdom. Brava!
People Power
In “The Participation Gap,” Devin Stewart of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs writes about the emergence of technology-enhanced citizen activism and the striking inequalities that remain. There’s “people power,” for sure; but not all people have access to it. As evaluators of social change campaigns, we’re sometimes asked to assess how a client is “moving the needle” through social media. Stewart’s piece reminds us that programs should be explicit in stating precisely whom they’re reaching via these platforms and how this activity links up to their broader theory of change.
Dude, Where’s My Consent?
We ain’t lawyers, but something about this Facebook research study didn’t feel right. Take the issue of consent. We have systems and procedures – like Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and other ethics review committees – to protect the people participating in various kinds of research (including evaluations). In fact, the American Evaluation Association has a few things to say about ethics in their set of policies. To understand how evaluators navigate this process, just check out this AEA365 post by Heather King on seeking IRB approval for education research. One takeaway: be mindful of deadlines.
