E-discussion: Evaluating SDGs with an equity-focused & gender responsive lens (no one left behind)

[Rituu B Nanda]

The purpose of the consultations (18th Jan-18th Feb 2016)

Following the approval of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN General Assembly and by the international development community in 2015, EvalPartners (including EvalGender+) and United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG)’s members have begun to form working groups to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems to assess these different goals.  The purpose of the present consultations, organized by EvalGender+, UNEG and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of UN Women, is to provide guidance to strengthen M&E systems to assess all SDGs with an equity-focused and gender-responsive lens, in addition to Goal 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and Goal 10 (Reduce inequality within and among countries).  The above mentioned agencies and network, in collaboration with other strategic stakeholders, are planning to prepare a guidance note that will assist both actors directly involved in social equity and gender equality, as well as all actors involved with the evaluation of the SDGs, in ensuring that social equity and gender equality are adequately addressed in all of the SDG evaluations. It is intended to produce a first version of this Guidance note by June 2016.  The SDG strategy is to work through, and to help strengthen existing M&E systems at the national and local levels and consequently the focus of the present consultations is on indicators and approaches that can be implemented through existing M&E structures – many of which may have limited experience and resources to address social equity and gender equality issues.

In addition to their importance as stand-alone sustainable development goals, both of these are cross-cutting themes that must be integrated into the assessment of all of the other goals.  For example, the achievement of Goal 2 (end hunger), Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages), Goal 7 (ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable modern energy) and Goal 13 (take urgent action to combat climate change) – to mention only four, all have important gender dimensions that affect the achievement of these goals.  Similarly, there are social equity dimensions to all goals. To read more on SDGs visit the link "Transforming our world:  The 2030 agenda for sustainable development.https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

The consultations identify four important themes that must be addressed in the M&E systems to assess SDGs with an equity-focused and gender-equality lens, in addition to goals 5 and 10:

• Theme 1:  The relevance of “new metrics” (measurement tools and indicators) for the evaluation of SDGs from an equity-focused and gender-responsive perspective.
• Theme 2:  Evaluation and complexity – Dealing with the increasing complexity of development and interconnectedness of SDGs to ensure “no one is left behind”
• Theme 3:  Towards equity-focused and gender-responsive national evaluation systems – Multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen national evaluation capacities
• Theme 4:  Demand for and use of evidence from equity-focused and gender responsive evaluation to inform equitable development

Each of these themes has different implications in different countries, regions, sectors and according to the type of organization.  Consequently we invite you to share your experiences and perspectives to assist the EvalGender+, UNEG, UN Women IEO teams in ensuring that the Guidance Note will reflect the diversity of experiences and perspectives in different countries, regions and types of organization.

 

Theme 1:  The relevance of “new metrics” (measurement tools and indicators) for the evaluation of SDGs from an equity-focused and gender-responsive perspective.

In recent years a number of “new metrics” have evolved which can potentially widen the range of indicators and measures available for the monitoring and evaluation of development results from equity and gender responsive perspectives. These include:

• Data that can now be collected through mobile phones, tablets, internet, GPS mapping and other new information technologies
• Big Data collected from satellites and drones, remote sensors, analysis of twitter and social media, mobile phone records, digital electronic transfers including purchase of mobile-phone air time and ATM withdrawals and crowdsourcing
• Participatory consultations (e.g. Most Significant Change, Outcome Harvesting, PRA)
• Concept mapping
• Mixed methods evaluations and
• Feminist research methods (e.g. oral history, feminist ethnography and content analysis, power relations, social justice and empowerment approaches)

Participants are invited to share their thoughts and experiences on the following questions (as well as others they propose)as they relate to equity-focused and gender responsive evaluation.

• In your experience what are some of the limitations of current data collection methods and the kinds of indicators they produce?
• What are the most difficult issues to measure with respect to social equity? and with respect to gender equality?
• What are the new challenges for assessing sustainable social equity and gender equality?
• What have proved some of the most effective methods?
• In addition to those mentioned above, what other new metrics are you familiar with?
• Which of the new metrics show the greatest promise?

Theme 2: Evaluation and complexity – Dealing with the increasing complexity of development and interconnectedness of SDGs to ensure “no one is left behind”

As SDGs are interconnected, national policies and programme to implement them will be complex. As programs grow in size and scope, the number of partners and stakeholders and in terms of the kinds of social and behavioral changes they seek to produce, they become more complex – both in terms of how they are designed and implemented, but also in terms of how they must be evaluated.  Complexity is defined in terms of: (a) the nature of the programme, (b) the number of partners and stakeholders and the patterns of interaction among them (including the level of consensus or disagreement among them on the goals of the programs), (c) the number of external (contextual) factors that influence how the programme is implemented and its outcomes and (d) the complexity of the causal chains through which outcomes are to be achieved.  A number of additional factors are particularly important for the evaluation of social equity and gender equality, including: (i) social and cultural constraints and pressures, (ii) the power relationships and social definition of gender relations and social equity, (iii) multiple influences on processes of behavioral change, (iv) the role of social media, and (v) the long, non-linear causal chains through which changes are produced.

Participants are invited to share their thoughts and experiences on the following questions (as well as others they propose) as they relate to equity-focused and gender responsive evaluation.

• Which dimensions of complexity are most important in your work on social equity and gender equality?
• How does complexity affect our understanding of the effectiveness of different interventions on the production of changes in social equity and gender equality?
• What methods and approaches have you found most effective for understanding the outcomes of complex programs on social equity and gender equality?
• The processes of change are long, involving many actors and contextual factors.  Also the processes are not linear as advances on one front often involve set-backs on others.  What kinds of evaluation strategies have you found most effective in these complex scenarios?
• What are the special challenges for understanding the impacts of different interventions on the most vulnerable populations?  What evaluation methods are most effective for studying these very sensitive processes of change?

Theme 3: Towards equity-focused and gender-responsive national evaluation systems – Multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen national evaluation capacities

 

The SDGs pose challenges for national evaluation systems as the SDGs require the involvement of a broader range of stakeholders, a broadening of the range of indicators to be measured and the methodological and organizational problems required to assess sustainability which requires collecting data over a much longer period of time.  Many programmes are intended to produce benefits that continue over five or even ten years and the evaluation must (ideally) continue over all of this period.  So instead of conventional evaluations that often only cover the 3-5 years of project implementation, the SDG evaluations may be required to continue for twice as long.  The application of a social equity and gender equality lens will often present additional challenges for national evaluation systems, including the fact that the evaluation of gender outcomes and impacts is often the weakest part of many national evaluation systemsand the methodologies for evaluating social equity are also not well developed in many countries (or in the evaluation literature in general).  Given resource constraints of many evaluation agencies, it will often not be possible to consider specialized evaluations that focus exclusively on equity and gender, and it will be necessary to adapt standard M&E methodologies to address these issues.  It will be important to consider the extent to which some of the multi-shareholder partnerships can bring in agencies with expertise in these areas and with additional resources that may permit the selective application of gender and equity focused data collection and analysis methodologies

 

Participants are invited to share their thoughts and experiences on the following questions (as well as others they propose) as they relate to equity focused and gender-responsive evaluation.

• In your experience what will be the main challenges that national evaluation systems will face when evaluating social equity and gender equality?
• In the countries with which you are familiar, how well established are the methodologies for evaluating these two areas.
• Which kinds of organization have the most experience in the evaluation of these two areas?  Are these organizations already part of the national evaluation systems?  If not, what will be required to ensure their active involvement?
• What kinds of evaluation capacity development will be required to strengthen the capacity of the national evaluation systems to address these issues?
• What are the example of successful partnership in your country or in your area of work to strengthen M&E systems in general, and equity-focused and gender-responsive systems in particular?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for such partnerships?

Theme 4:  Demand for and use of evidence from equity-focused and gender responsive evaluation to inform equitable development

 

Experience from all regions and sectors shows that one of the biggest challenges facing evaluation systems is the very low rate of utilization of evaluations.  In many cases evaluation findings do not reach many of the key organizations and groups (including community and women’s organizations), in other cases they are not presented in a form which is easily accessible to some groups, particularly the most vulnerable.  Even when evaluations are reviewed, action is often not taken on many of the recommendations.  These challenges are likely to be even more serious for social equity and gender equality as these themes are less familiar to many organizations and the mechanisms to review and action are often less developed.

 

Participants are invited to share their thoughts and experiences on the following questions (as well as others they propose) as they relate to equity focused and gender-responsive evaluation.

• In your experience what are the factors affecting the demand for and use of evaluation?
• Are there additional factors affecting the demand and utilization of social equity and gender equality evaluations?
• How could the demand and utilization of these evaluations be increased?
• What types of evaluation presentations would you propose to make evaluation more accessible to stakeholders?

 

 

 

[Marcia Brandon]

I really have not been able to do much because I am so swamped but I am genuinely interested in all that is going on.  So I shall stay updated as much as possible.

[Henry Muigai Mwangi]

Very happy to be a member and joining these discussions.

For accurate measurements to be achieved,there is need to develop clear and implementable indicators.There are times when we have set out to measure gender questions and have ended up not getting very accurate data.For overall SDGs to make sense,they must also be reduced into the simplicity that will guide data collection,achieve accurate data hence right decisions.

Cheers.

[Isha Wedasinghe Miranda]

 i Agreed with Henry too.  Must table the Priorities,  revisiting  indicators and   design matrix and proper  channel  on  collection of  data is must. As marco said yesterday  the pilot exercise in 6 countries must implement to study  the approach.   

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Interesting discussion. Let me share the sample "equity focused and gender responsive National Evaluation Policy" published by EvalPartners (as part of http://mymande.org/sites/default/files/files/NationalEvaluationPoli...(1).pdf http://mymande.org/selected-books The sample has lot of key points for us to learn when developing NEP in our countries. If EFGR is in the evaluation policy itself, it would be easier to include it in evaluations.

[Asi Nkengla Lilian]

It is quite interesting and i am excited to be part of this discussion. I think some of the challenging issues are in the development of indicators in a manner that are simple and understandable to give accurate results. At what level and how to incorporate M& E in our governement institutions which are often corrupt with little or no knwledge on M&E in general and more so, in social equity and gender equality.

[Basundhara Bhattarai]

I am glad to be part of the discussion group. For me, the reason why we are far behind in achieving gender equity is the lack clear of 'Theory of Change' in development program planning and practical operations. Irrespective of the types of organizations (government and non-government) we all are after the same common goal given that achieving gender equity is crucial aspects of achieving social equity. All we need is to link our program objectives to our expected outcomes with considerable amount of procedural elements towards achieving the outcomes. 

[Rituu B Nanda]

Dear Basundhara, who should be involved in developing the theory of change? Thanks

[Vanessa Anastasopoulos]

Thank you for sharing this useful template. Integrating EFGR into national evaluation policies will result in both increased demand and strengthened capacities for EFGR evaluations.
In my experience, there is considerable hesitation to either integrate EFGR guidelines into existing national policies or to establish stand-alone guidelines. I am hopeful that this important work toward integrating EFGR in all SDGs will motivate change at national levels.
One question I've heard asked is why a national evaluation policy should focus on gender and not on other facets of human rights. To address this question, the need to take into account the intersection of gender with other social and demographic factors can be emphasized.

[Rituu B Nanda]

I agree with you equity lens is important. Would you have any experience of convincing any commissioner of evaluation for gender and equity focused evaluation. Thanks and warm hello Vanessa!

[Vanessa Anastasopoulos]

A warm hello to you too, Rituu!
In Canada, a gender-based analysis plus (GBA+, with the + representing the intersection of gender with other identity factors) must be applied to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of national legislation, policies, and programs.
Though this requirement has not been explicitly integrated into the national evaluation policy, departments are expected to develop GBA+ policies that can include guidelines for GBA+ monitoring and evaluation. It is within this context that I have noted the importance of emphasizing the equity lense (the "+" in GBA+).

[Rituu B Nanda]

I am glad that it is so explicit. Otherwise gender is restricted to man and women power relations. What can do that this lens is fully integrated into our national systems. Thanks dear Vanessa!

That is why Evalgender+ !!!

[Isha Wedasinghe Miranda]

Dear Vanessa and Rituu

Some what I agreed, how ever concern  too.

I think integrating all in to National Policy Plan it is not possible in many countries . How ever policy must have broader approach through guidelines . As rituu says not only woman and man . But we must used a suitable context and contents and  right approach to the  difficult  countries   to accommodate all into their  National Policy  Plan.

Rituu question:  What can do that this lens is fully integrated into our national systems? All above what I said with Do No harm Concept. That`s need lots of Brainstorming and analysis , so there won`t be any temporary halt on the process due to lack of analysis in country context.  

I hope this make sense