Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Gender

[JAQUELINE MEZA]

INCLUDOVATE -  Call for Researchers, Pacific Focus

[3eojs5yj0d18m]

Hey Jaqueline,

We deployed UFE for one of our projects that targeted elected women representatives and aimed at building their capacities as representatives of local government and also to specifically be change agents in the domain of reproductive health. 

UFE is a guiding framework, rather than a methodology with a specific theory, but is distinctive in nature in involving the users in the designing, and implementation of the evaluation, the users taking the ownership of the evaluation process and utilization of the findings. UFE is a flexible approach to evaluation which can adapt and use a wide variety of evaluation methods within an overall participatory paradigm where "the evaluator facilitates judgment and decision making by intended users rather than acting as a distant independent judge" (Patton, 1997).  

The evaluation consumers need to be engaged in planning and designing of the evaluation, formulating the evaluation questions, decision making throughout the evaluation process, data analysis and collection, and the interpretation of the evaluation results. The extent of this collaborative partnership may vary as per the context and the needs, but ownership by the user is a non-negotiable component of UFE. Having said that, a bulk of the indicators depend on the program being implemented and not the UFE. 

Regards

Manju

[Rituu B Nanda]

Thanks for sharing Manju. What was the experience of engaging elected women representatives? How did you build ownership in evaluation? Warm greetings!

[JAQUELINE MEZA]

Thank you very much Manju!

I really appreciate your answer.

How can we apply this approach when we already have reference terms for doing the evaluations? Which is the case of Mexico.

Regards,

Jaqueline

[3eojs5yj0d18m]

Dear Jaqueline,

Under UFE, ideally, one should develop evaluation indicators in consultation with the stakeholders. If nothing else then one can focus on what information (periodic or otherwise) was generated and used by the stakeholders to bring about what change. 

Since you have not shared much about the project that you intend to evaluate or the timeline within which you are required to complete the evaluation i can only share an example with you from our project.

Accountability checklists were developed under the project which was refined and indicators were prioritized in consultation with the elected women representatives Assessment of public health facilities around indicators such as infrastructure, personnel, community participation, availability of equipment, drugs and other supplies and quality of logistical arrangements through the checklists helped EWRs understand the gaps in service delivery. The EWRs shared their findings and gaps at appropriate forums such as Village Council meetings, and with health authorities at different levels to ensure their commitment to fulfil the gaps, and also supported the local health functionaries to improve quality and coverage of services through utilization of untied fund.

Comparison of two rounds of checklist administration showed significant improvement in availability of functional equipment, supplies, provision of services and quality of logistical arrangements. The effort has visibly empowered local women leaders to lead in improving services for women’s health by identifying the gaps in service provision, working with the system to enhance quality of services, and mobilizing community to access health services.

[SONAL ZAVERI]

Hi Jacqueline,

There are lots of resources on UFE! Of course, you have the material from Michael Patton's HUGE book as well as his more recent one on "Essentials of UFE".

I was part of an IDRC project that test drove the approach with rich learnings from the experience over about six years. Have a look at the website www.evaluationandcommunicationinpractice.net where you will find lots of resources - presentations, modules, case studies, a primer (very easy to read), webinars, and other materials. Best of all, there are some references in Spanish! We have recently developed a hybrid of UFE with Communication (we call it Research Communication or ResCom)- the assumption being that for USE with USERS, you also need to have a communication strategy defined by your purpose and audience. This is currently called VeriCom.

I have also used the UFE with a gender transformative lens and written up the case study. It is an article in a book entitled: A RESOURCE PACK ON GENDER TRANSFORMATIVE EVALUATIONS Edited by Shraddha Chigateri and Shiny Saha. The Resource Pack should be available soon for dissemination. Keep a lookout for it!

I have personally found the UFE approach very useful in my evaluations. Check out the report here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MkDr2yX41KfYZHpGuvjCVuoAc60O-hW...

Feel free to contact me if you need any more information.

Cheers,

Sonal

[JAQUELINE MEZA]

nThank you very much Sonal!

I really appreciate your help! I will read carefully the documents and I will contact you back for sure!

Especially, because in Mexico we have reference terms for the evaluations and I don't know how can we use the U-FE approach beeing so limited about the questions that we can make in the evaluations?

Regards,

Jaqueline

[Nataly Salas Rodríguez]

Hola Jaqueline, el año pasado finalicé mi trabajo de investigación aplicada para la Maestría en Evaluación de Programas y Proyectos de Desarrollo en la Universidad de Costa Rica. En esta evaluación utilicé el UFE como uno de los enfoques de evaluación base. Te adjunto el documento para que lo puedas usar como referencia.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-DYRKY-9gOeNVY1b0lXaHh5MnM

Saludos,

Nataly Salas

[JAQUELINE MEZA]

Muchas gracias Nataly por el documento!

Lo revisaré con calma y te comento...

Te mando un abrazo!

Jaqueline