How can national M&E/gender consultants and international firms work together to provide highly effective, innovative and efficient gender-sensitive evaluation solutions? - Gender and Evaluation2024-03-28T14:23:59Zhttps://gendereval.ning.com/forum/topics/how-can-national-m-e-gender-consultants-and-international-firms?commentId=6606644%3AComment%3A52301&feed=yes&xn_auth=noFor my own i think that there…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-21:6606644:Comment:525402016-04-21T14:41:32.659ZWAFFO Uilrich Inespéréhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/WAFFOUilrichInespere
<p>For my own i think that there is a overall methodological diversity and many evaluators don't even well understand the concept of gender not talking of mainstreamed it in evaluations. Capacity building is necessary to harmonize the knowledge and the frameworks of the gender sensitive evaluation. This means that we should have a set of tools and methods designed to be easily adapted to the differents context.</p>
<p>For my own i think that there is a overall methodological diversity and many evaluators don't even well understand the concept of gender not talking of mainstreamed it in evaluations. Capacity building is necessary to harmonize the knowledge and the frameworks of the gender sensitive evaluation. This means that we should have a set of tools and methods designed to be easily adapted to the differents context.</p> Hi Keri and Svetlana,
A quick…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:523012016-04-14T18:10:55.254ZIan C Davieshttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/IanCDavies
<p>Hi Keri and Svetlana,</p>
<p>A quick note and rejoinder before calling it a day. I think that rather than looking through the lens of "national" vs "international", it is more practical, accurate and fair to talk about knowledge of context. And context is about an infinity of possible environments, organisational, local, political, cultural, etc. Once again I think "geography" and using the country as a unit of categorisation is unhelpful and reflective of what I hope is now well recognised…</p>
<p>Hi Keri and Svetlana,</p>
<p>A quick note and rejoinder before calling it a day. I think that rather than looking through the lens of "national" vs "international", it is more practical, accurate and fair to talk about knowledge of context. And context is about an infinity of possible environments, organisational, local, political, cultural, etc. Once again I think "geography" and using the country as a unit of categorisation is unhelpful and reflective of what I hope is now well recognised as a post-colonial paradigm and rejected as such by our evaluation communities. </p>
<p>On the "rarity" of my case you may wish to consider Nassim Taleb's writings (the Black Swan among others). Your remark on the blue marble reference is an interesting and revealing one: how are evaluators with an interest in trans-cultural global systems perspectives not "national" and what are they external to?</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Ian</p> Thank you Keri, absolutely ag…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:519002016-04-14T17:34:17.548ZSvetlana Negroustouevahttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/SvetlanaNegroustoueva
<p>Thank you Keri, absolutely agree. Team composition is a key and often times both national and international expertise is needed. Notably, in your example, international living in a national context, a distinct group.</p>
<p>Ian, I think yours is a rare case (of many languages and passports and countries) and issues of competencies in evaluation is a whole other discussion. By mentioning marble evaluators you already put yourself in a different group, considered "external" and foreign to many…</p>
<p>Thank you Keri, absolutely agree. Team composition is a key and often times both national and international expertise is needed. Notably, in your example, international living in a national context, a distinct group.</p>
<p>Ian, I think yours is a rare case (of many languages and passports and countries) and issues of competencies in evaluation is a whole other discussion. By mentioning marble evaluators you already put yourself in a different group, considered "external" and foreign to many national consultants.</p>
<p></p> That is a very appealing sent…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:518982016-04-14T17:04:45.302ZKeri Culverhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/KeriCulver
<p>That is a very appealing sentiment, Ian, and I always hope it is the case. I would caution against any automatic assumption of independence, however, based on the blue marble evaluator images. Having worked in one country for three years now (for the first time in my career of gallivanting a bit like you have), I realize the networks and allegiances behind many local consultants is not imaginary. It's not bad, either - it's how you get context, it's the path to hallways of power for…</p>
<p>That is a very appealing sentiment, Ian, and I always hope it is the case. I would caution against any automatic assumption of independence, however, based on the blue marble evaluator images. Having worked in one country for three years now (for the first time in my career of gallivanting a bit like you have), I realize the networks and allegiances behind many local consultants is not imaginary. It's not bad, either - it's how you get context, it's the path to hallways of power for interviews and policy-level perspectives, it's how that consultant earns his or her living AND how s/he continues important work in the sector.</p>
<p>An example: we evaluated donor-funded interventions to help victims of land mines, and the best candidate for evaluation director was an academic who also had previously held posts with the government's own land mines victims attention program (with a competing model.) Was he conditioned and with particular opinions because he had been "inside"? Or sufficiently grounded in context to be able to look at the evaluand from a position of in-depth local knowledge? Both are true. We worked to make sure the team had a balance of non-insiders and insiders, to counteract any preconceived opinions on the part of anyone, but we absolutely benefited from his experience. How else might we have known, for example, how to make realistic recommendations for possible scale-up within government budget limitations?</p>
<p>So I wouldn't put national affiliation in the "irrelevant" box. It's quite important and it needs to be discussed at the outset.</p> Excellent discussion.
To the…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:522242016-04-14T16:47:47.703ZIan C Davieshttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/IanCDavies
<p>Excellent discussion.</p>
<p>To the extent that an evaluation is considered independent, its independence is anchored in the evaluator's autonomy to make an evaluative judgment, i.e. once the findings of fact are agreed to, the evaluator assesses these against agree value frames of reference ("criteria" are the most common but not the only one way of doing so).</p>
<p>Evaluation independence has little to do with the distinction between "international" and "national" or with the size of the…</p>
<p>Excellent discussion.</p>
<p>To the extent that an evaluation is considered independent, its independence is anchored in the evaluator's autonomy to make an evaluative judgment, i.e. once the findings of fact are agreed to, the evaluator assesses these against agree value frames of reference ("criteria" are the most common but not the only one way of doing so).</p>
<p>Evaluation independence has little to do with the distinction between "international" and "national" or with the size of the firm, or where an individual lives and works. Nor for that matter do evaluation competencies. As a Credentialed Evaluator who is British, French, Canadian, born and raised in Morocco, living in Denmark, France, Canada, and working in countries and regions all over the world, the distinction between "national" and "international" is irrelevant. What matters is that I practice in those areas in which I have professionally recognised competencies.</p>
<p>The dichotomy between "national" and "international" is already irrelevant to blue marble evaluators.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Ian</p> Greetings, I agree with most…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:521272016-04-14T16:10:15.434ZSvetlana Negroustouevahttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/SvetlanaNegroustoueva
<p>Greetings, I agree with most of what has been said but would reiterate a few items and may be add.</p>
<p>- international consultants/firms bring independence to the evaluation, and national consultants bring context and local knowledge. Many M&E methods and approaches have been practiced more in the context of international developments and the actual knowledge and lessons learnt have come from the ground up.</p>
<p>- notably, increasingly so, when international consultants are hired…</p>
<p>Greetings, I agree with most of what has been said but would reiterate a few items and may be add.</p>
<p>- international consultants/firms bring independence to the evaluation, and national consultants bring context and local knowledge. Many M&E methods and approaches have been practiced more in the context of international developments and the actual knowledge and lessons learnt have come from the ground up.</p>
<p>- notably, increasingly so, when international consultants are hired they are not from the "west" but rather from the neighboring countries or the same region, in the spirit of south-to-south cooperation and knowledge sharing. </p>
<p>- many agencies have issues with procuring services from local firms: depending on the country, the costs may be higher and so are the risks. Individual consultants are easier to find and fully integrate in the team.</p>
<p>-I don't think t<span>he increased demand for participatory approaches in the context of the SDGs</span> will tip the balance: a lot has been happening and trends has been towards local ownership and use of national consultants as key team members and team leads. SDGs alone will not change the level of capacities, but hopefully government committments will drive national dialog and efforts to build capacities. </p>
<p>Based on my experience, reliance on national consultants for their contextual knowledge is key, I would not have been able to successfully complete many evaluations without my national colleagues. </p>
<p> </p> Great input Keri, many thanks…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-14:6606644:Comment:521252016-04-14T13:36:00.757ZEmmanuel Trepanierhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/EmmanuelTrepanier
<p>Great input Keri, many thanks for your contribution!</p>
<p>Great input Keri, many thanks for your contribution!</p> One thing that springs to min…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-13:6606644:Comment:522062016-04-13T22:36:34.890ZKeri Culverhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/KeriCulver
<p>One thing that springs to mind is that intl firms often partner with national universities for this kind of data collection and (sometimes) analysis. I don't know if there's a cost savings there or not, considering the high overhead often charged by universities. But what I think has to happen no matter where you contract these services is a) a realization that we're all in this together and we need one another, 2) intl firms have to pony up the real costs for these services, not try to make…</p>
<p>One thing that springs to mind is that intl firms often partner with national universities for this kind of data collection and (sometimes) analysis. I don't know if there's a cost savings there or not, considering the high overhead often charged by universities. But what I think has to happen no matter where you contract these services is a) a realization that we're all in this together and we need one another, 2) intl firms have to pony up the real costs for these services, not try to make their money on the backs of locals, and 3) that goes right back up to the budgets and proposals to donors/funders. You do, truly, get what you pay for.</p>
<p>As for large agencies' procurement processes, well, I have to believe that the human technical teams there, who should be able to know and weigh the values of these expenses in budgets and proposals, have to have the procurement mechanisms available to them to make these arrangements work. In my experience, they do, even if they don't know about alternate or flexible arrangements, or don't care to put in the extra work for them. Subcontracting is sometimes forbidden, which is a practice that can be problematic from an auditing standpoint but is absolutely essential.</p>
<p>Apart from whether or not an intl firm is allowed to subcontract, though, I don't see any major procurement difficulties as long as the technical team at that agency is willing to explore options within and amongst their labyrinths of rules. Of course it could be easier, but we have those rules because...loopholes and cheating and stealing government funds. So they're not going away. Best to find mechanisms within them that do work.</p> Hi Keri,
Indeed, real partne…tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-13:6606644:Comment:521112016-04-13T19:04:33.188ZEmmanuel Trepanierhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/EmmanuelTrepanier
<p>Hi Keri, </p>
<p>Indeed, real partnerships with complementary (and proven) competencies! I'm particularly interested in flexible business models that might facilitate more engaged and substantive collaborations between various types of consultants given the budget constraints we frequently face. Or perhaps the ''business model'' lens is the wrong perspective from which to look at this? And are procurement processes of large agencies adequate for these meaningful partnerships to take place as…</p>
<p>Hi Keri, </p>
<p>Indeed, real partnerships with complementary (and proven) competencies! I'm particularly interested in flexible business models that might facilitate more engaged and substantive collaborations between various types of consultants given the budget constraints we frequently face. Or perhaps the ''business model'' lens is the wrong perspective from which to look at this? And are procurement processes of large agencies adequate for these meaningful partnerships to take place as part of evaluation mandates? Thoughts? </p> Great input, thank you Shubh!
tag:gendereval.ning.com,2016-04-13:6606644:Comment:518882016-04-13T18:51:45.344ZEmmanuel Trepanierhttps://gendereval.ning.com/profile/EmmanuelTrepanier
<p>Great input, thank you Shubh!</p>
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<p>Great input, thank you Shubh!</p>
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