Monthly Corner

Laura Hughston - Blog

Arnoux Mouafo Nop & Dimitri Tsona Zapzi - Article 

Prof. Wangari Mwai and Prof. Catherine Ndungo - BOOK

  • Understanding Gender and Identity Through The Gender Dictionary

    Publisher: Bleeding Ink Scribes

RAI SENGUPTA - gender-transformative evaluation tools

This synthesis draws on evidence from 17 humanitarian evaluations across diverse crisis settings. It identifies key feminist evaluation innovations across four domains - design, methods, analysis, and ethics - illustrating how feminist principles can be embedded throughout the evaluation process. It also surfaces broader shifts required at policy, institutional, and practice levels to realise the transformative potential of feminist approaches in humanitarian contexts.

The toolkit translates these insights into applied guidance for evaluators and organisations. It provides step-by-step support across the full evaluation cycle, including planning, design, methods, analysis, ethics, and dissemination. Drawing on global feminist evaluation practice, humanitarian guidance, and gender evaluation standards, it includes adaptable tools, participatory and arts-based methods, guiding questions, and templates for field application.

Ritu Dewan & Swat Raju - Article

  • Economy and Inequality

    In Promises & Reality 2026 Citizen’s Review of Year 2 of the NDA-III Government. Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, June 20, 2026. pp 94-100.

UTTHAN - Research Report

Traversing the path with women farmers in their fields and in our reflections/writings, a stark observation was the sheer lack of localized and regional vocabulary and terminology to adequately capture and communicate the understanding of climate change and mitigation strategies, informed by the unique experiences and needs of small and marginal women farmers. This is what propelled our research - to examine how women farmers perceive, express, experience, and respond to climate variability across

Our Research Report centres the lived experiences, generational knowledge, and resilience strategies of small and marginal women farmers from the coastal (Bhavnagar) and hilly (Dahod & Panchmahal) regions i.e two contrasting agro-climatic zones of Gujarat. Through their voices, the study reveals exactly how climate change intersects with gender, land rights, labour burdens, and food security.

Vacancies

INCLUDOVATE -  Call for Researchers, Pacific Focus

About the job

At Includovate, we are expanding our Pacific Research & Evaluation Talent Pool and inviting researchers, evaluators, consultants, and development practitioners to join a growing network of professionals committed to creating meaningful social impact.

As a feminist research incubator and certified social enterprise, Includovate works with partners including UNICEF, UNFPA, the ILO, governments, and development organisations across 23+ countries. Our work spans gender equality, social inclusion, health, disability, youth, climate, WASH, market systems, and other development priorities.

We are particularly keen to connect with experts from:
📍 Papua New Guinea
📍 Solomon Islands
📍 Vanuatu
📍 Timor-Leste
📍 Fiji
📍 Samoa
📍 Tonga
📍 Indonesia
📍 Australia
and across the wider Pacific region.

We welcome expertise in:
✓ Research, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
✓ Gender Equality & Social Inclusion
✓ Health & SRHR
✓ Disability Inclusion
✓ Youth Development
✓ Climate & Environment
✓ WASH
✓ Market Systems Development
✓ Governance & Community Development

Whether your expertise lies in data collection, research, evaluation, technical advisory, facilitation, or team leadership, we would love to hear from you.
By joining our Talent Pool, you become part of a trusted network of professionals who may be considered for future research, evaluation, advisory, and consulting opportunities across the Pacific region and beyond.

🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/eyF66S7H

Dear colleagues,

Following up on some individual exchanges I have had recently with colleagues regarding the quality of RFP & ToR for evaluation in “development”, some of my takes:
If it doesn’t value it is not an evaluation: The extent to which something has been achieved is a measurement question, not a valuing question. Checking to see whether intended results have been achieved, or not, unintended positive, negative, etc. does not make an evaluation. Evaluative reasoning is required to value.
Purpose: The specific value proposition of the specific evaluation to the specific claim/rights holders based on their value perspectives. To say the purpose of the evaluation is learning and accountability is meaningless (and applicable to thousands of evaluations)
Approach: The valuing frames that evaluative reasoning will consider. Participatory is not an approach. 
Methodology: How the evaluation proposes to fulfill its value proposition, considering context, time and resources.
The OECD-DAC “criteria”, as are all other off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all operationalized value perspectives, are the expression of a specific valuing frame that may not be appropriate to valuing the evaluand at hand, i.e. it is a production process framing. This is especially the case in “donor” financed RFP where they are routinely used without due consideration.
If an RFP&TOR specify the methodology it is a task based assignment, i.e. it is a matter of doing what you’re told and paid for. In those cases, which are a majority, the independence and autonomy of the evaluation is compromised from the start, as are the claims and rights of holders.
RFP should include the proposed budget in all cases. 
A good question to ask at the start, for both commissioners and interested parties: what is it that this proposed evaluation will do that a performance audit can’t do?
Cheers,
Ian

Ian C. Davies
Credentialed Evaluator/Évaluateur Qualifié
idavies@capacity.ca 
Mobile Europe: +33 (0) 6 89 40 88 38
Office: +1 (250) 920-0656 ext 232
Mobile Canada: +1(778) 967-1279
Skype: iancdavies

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Comment by Rituu B Nanda on August 28, 2020 at 19:48

I am including here some terms you described in today's SLEVA webinar.  Thanks a lot Ian.

  • Monitoring is a management function: the responsibility and obligation to measure, assess and report on the performance of the intervention and/or entity.
  • Audit: a process superimposed on an accountability relationship to provide assurance (financial, performance, compliance with authorities).
  • Evaluation: a systematic & inclusive process of valuing based on the value perspectives of the claims / rights holders.
  • The term (and concept) of rigour is rooted in the natural sciences and refers to the ability to precisely replicate the research protocol, e.g. the experiment. Rigour in the social sciences is not a term of art. Rather it is used by different individuals or groups, in different ways, including for marketing and self-promotion. As such, it is a loaded term, the use of which in evaluation tends more to obfuscate than to bring clarity and promote understanding
  • mixed methods- the original intent of this term (which I got directly from its coiner Carole Weiss years ago) is mixed constructs, i.e. multiple perspectives on valuing constructs

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