Advocating for Evaluation a Toolkit to Develop Advocacy Strategies to Strengthen an Enabling Environment for Evaluation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
While technical evaluation capacities (the so-called supply side) are paramount to produce high-quality evaluative evidence, an enabling environment for evaluation is necessary to ensure it is actually used for decision-making. In many instances, the demand and use of evaluation to inform policy-making is not as strong as it should be. In these cases, an advocacy strategy to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation is necessary. for Evaluation Advocating This toolkit attempts to create a better understanding of what advocacy is and how it can be used practically to build an enabling environment for evaluation. The toolkit provides a series of incremental steps that can be taken to effectively advocate for national evaluation policies and systems that are equity- focused and gender-responsive. The toolkit will be useful for civil society organizations (CSOs), Vol- untary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) as well as governments, parliaments, academia, evaluation units from development cooperation agencies and other development partners to get familiar with key advocacy concepts and techniques that can help in building an enabling environment for evaluation. It will equally be useful for other stakeholders, such as students, an enabling environment for evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen journalists and managers who want to expand their understanding of a structured approach to sustained and effective advocacy to promote a culture of evaluation. Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation In partnership with: http://mymande.org/ www.mymande.org/ http://www.unwomen.org/en/ http://ioce.net evalpartners evalyear about-us/accountability-and- evaluation/evaluation 2014 Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation In partnership with: ISSUE # 1: New trends in development evaluation. Published jointly by UNICEF and IPEN. 2006. ISSUE # 2: Bridging the gap: The role of monitoring and evaluation in evidence-based policy-making. Published by UNICEF in partnership with the World Bank, IDEAS, DevInfo, and MICS, 2008. ISSUE # 3: Country-led monitoring and evaluation systems. Better evidence, better policies, better development results. Published by UNICEF in partnership with the World Bank, IDEAS, IOCE, UNECE, DevInfo, and MICS, 2009. ISSUE # 4: Country-led monitoring and evaluation systems. Watch and listen to international keynote speakers. DVD published by UNICEF in partnership with IDEAS, IOCE, WFP, OECD/DAC Network on development evaluation, and DevInfo, 2009. ISSUE # 5: From policies to results: Developing capacities for country monitoring and evaluation systems. Published by UNICEF in partnership with DevInfo, IDEAS, ILO, IOCE, The World Bank, UNDP, UNIFEM, and WFP, 2010. ISSUE # 6: How to design and manage Equity-focused evaluations. UNICEF, 2011. ISSUE # 7: Evaluation for equitable development results. Published by UNICEF in partnership with Coneval, IDEAS, IDRC, ILO, IOCE, UNDP, and UNWomen, 2012. ISSUE # 8: Evaluation and Civil Society. Stakeholders’ perspectives on National Evaluation Capacity Development. Published by UNICEF, EvalPartners and IOCE in partnership with CLEAR, IEG World Bank, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, OECD Development Assistance Committee Network on Development Evaluation, UNEG and UNWomen, 2013. ISSUE # 9: Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation. Learning from Africa, Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe and Middle East. Published by UNICEF, EvalPartners and IOCE in partnership with Cooperación Española, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, UNEG, and UNWomen, 2013. Photo Credits: © UNICEF/NYHQ2013-0625/Susan Markisz All the above publications are available for free download at http://www.mymande.org/selected-books Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal thinking of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNWomen, IOCE, EvalPartners, Ministry of Foreign Affiars of Finalnd, OECD Development Assistance Committee Network on Development Evaluation, UNEG, UNICEF, USAID, or any other organization involved or named in this publication. The text has not been edited to official publication standards and UNWomen and partner organizations accept no responsibility for errors. Extracts from this publication may be freely reproduced with due acknowledgement. Design by services-concept.ch Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation Editors Marco Segone, Tessie Catsambas and Jim Rugh Author Neha Karkara Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Getting familiar with the toolkit ........................................................................................................... 8 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Developing national evaluation capacities ................................................................. 13 1.2 Role of CSOs and VOPEs in strengthening national evaluation capacity development ...................................................................................... 18 1.3 Role of governments in supporting national evaluation capacity development ...................................................................................... 21 1.4 Role of parliamentarians in building an enabling environment for evaluation ....................................................................................................................................... 24 1.5 Role of partners in supporting national evaluation capacity development ................................................................................................................. 25 1.6 Advocacy for building an enabling environment for evaluation ............... 25 2 Developing an advocacy strategy to build an enabling environment for evaluation ........................................................................................................... 29 2.1 Why plan for advocacy ................................................................................................................30 2.2 Nine questions for strategic advocacy planning ................................................... 31 Question 1: What do we want? (Goals) .......................................................................33 Question 2: Who can give it to us? (Audiences, Targets or Power-Holders) .......................................................................................................38 Question 3: What do they need to hear? (Messages) ..................................... 54 Question 4: Who do they need to hear it from? (Messengers) ............... 58 Question 5: How can we make sure they hear it? (Delivery).....................60 Question 6: What have we got? (Resources, strengths) ............................... 75 Question 7: What do we need to develop? (Challenges, gaps)............... 75 Question 8: How do we begin? (First steps) ........................................................... 76 Question 9: How do we tell if it’s working? (M&E) ........................................... 79 2.3 Putting together the advocacy strategy using nine questions .................84 Advocating for Evaluation A toolkit to develop advocacy strategies to strengthen an enabling environment for evaluation 3 Tracking progress in advocating for an enabling environment for evaluation ...........................................................................................................86 4 Advocating for equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluation policies................................................................................................................................... 93 5 Strengthening partnerships to influence evaluation policies and systems .......................................................................................................................... 101 6 Working with parliamentarians to increase demand for evaluation ..............................................................................................................................................111 7 Managing knowledge in advocacy ...................................................................................... 120 8 Managing risks in advocacy........................................................................................................125 9 Mobilizing resources for advocacy .....................................................................................129 Annex 1: Effective press releases, press kits, media events and interviews .............................................................................................................. 132 Annex 2: Glossary ...........................................................................................................................................134