Using Public Opinion Polling in Development Evaluations
Evaluators have multiple tools at their disposal, including polling of the public in target communities. For some evaluations, public opinion polls and surveys can provide critical information about the outcomes—and possibly the impact—of an intervention. For advocacy evaluators and others tracking complex social change efforts, these polls may clarify how awareness campaigns influence public attitudes and behaviors. For example, carefully-crafted surveys can yield valuable evidence for development project evaluators tracking attitudes towards gender-based violence, or women’s access to microcredit programs. Dr. Craig Charney, a polling expert and President of New York-based Charney Research, will speak about the value that public opinion surveys can add to evaluation design. Drawing from his extensive experience working in the developing world, Dr. Charney will discuss the role of surveys in better assessing needs, developing strategies, evaluating progress, and increasing impact. If you wish to attend, please RSVP here.
Charney Research is an international survey research firm specializing in emerging markets and crisis countries. Dr. Charney has helped many of the world’s leading development organizations successfully create strategies, plan projects, and evaluate results. His clients have included USAID, MCC, the Asia Foundation, the World Bank, IFES, the International Peace Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute, UNDP, and other blue chips of development and diplomacy. He has worked in over 35 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Eurasia, ranging from Poland to South Africa, from Iraq to Afghanistan, and from Morocco to Indonesia. Before founding the firm in 1997, he earned a PhD in African politics from Yale and a master’s in sociology of development at the Sorbonne. He was a central figure in the Surveys teams of Nelson Mandela in 1994 and Bill Clinton in 1996.