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Session Title: International Advocacy Evaluation: Coordinating Comprehensive Evaluation Across Seven Countries
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Panel Session 619 to be held in Panzacola Section F1 on Friday, Nov 13, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Laura Ostenso, Innovation Network Inc, lostenso@innonet.org
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| Discussant(s):
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| Julia Coffman, Harvard Family Research Project, jcoffman@evaluationexchange.org
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| Abstract:
The ACTION project, working in 7 countries worldwide, developed an internal evaluation system, complimented by external evaluation, to support its advocacy work to fight tuberculosis (TB). In this session, ACTION project partners from donor and high-TB burden countries, along with it's external evaluation partner, Innovation Network, will demonstrate ACTION's evaluation processes and the successes and setbacks in designing and implementing an advocacy evaluation system that is successful in guiding a multi country advocacy campaign. The session will provide an overview of ACTION's evaluation system and will examine the following: How is advocacy evaluation implemented across a seven country project? How does cultural context impact how M&E is implemented? How is it integrated into everyday operations? How is it best leveraged for decision making? How did an advocacy organization bridge internal evaluation, designed for mapping internal advocacy strategies, and an external evaluation, designed to link strategies to long-term goals?
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Developing and Coordinating Monitoring and Evaluation for International Advocacy
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| Paul Jensen, RESULTS Educational Fund, pjensen@results.org
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Victoria Treland is the Senior Project Manager for ACTION (Advocacy to Control Tuberculosis Internationally) at RESULTS Educational Fund. Victoria will explain the process of developing and refining a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system flexible enough to meet the unique needs of a multi-country advocacy campaign. She will address how ACTION's internal M&E system helped ACTION to strategically align its activities and objectives from the first three years of the project into its second five-year phase. The presentation will address how ACTION effectively coordinates among seven international partners to create a streamlined system tailored to each country's specific needs. Victoria will also describe how ACTION used external evaluation findings in order to comprehensively understand its overall strengths and weaknesses and modify its work accordingly. Finally, she will discuss how ACTION's internal and external evaluations will impact its work moving forward.
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Using a Monitoring and Evaluation System for Strategic Decision Making
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| Aldwyn Hamilton, RESULTS Educational Fund, ahamilton@results.org
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| Evelyn Kibuchi, AIDS Non Governmental Organization (NGO) Consortium, action@action.org
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Aldwyn Hamilton and Evelyn Kibuchi have been a part of the ACTION project since its inception. As ACTION partners, they work extensively with ACTION's M&E system. Chris and Evelyn will discuss the use of the M&E system in their daily work, and showcase examples of how their use of the M&E system has informed particular areas of their advocacy work. Each presenter will offer their experiences of balancing M&E with everyday operations, which is often easier said than done, and the challenges of learning to use and integrate M&E into strategic decision making. They will also discuss the differences between ACTION's M&E system in donor and high-tuberculosis (TB) burden countries. The presentation will shed light on advocacy evaluation as a learning tool both for ongoing strategic decision making, and for communicating progress to partners and funders.
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From the Outside In: Integrating Internal Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) With an External Evaluation
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| Laura Ostenso, Innovation Network Inc, lostenso@innonet.org
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Laura Ostenso, an Associate at Innovation Network, coordinated the external evaluation for the ACTION project in 2008-2009. In designing the external evaluation, which consisted of thirty interviews, one partner-wide focus group, and the research and writing of four advocacy case studies, the Innovation Network evaluation team built on ACTION's internal evaluation system to delve into the "how" and "why" questions of ACTION's advocacy successes. Laura will demonstrate how the Innovation Network team pulled appropriate information from ACTION's comprehensive internal M&E system, and she will relay the external findings in order to shed light on framing external advocacy evaluation questions. Laura will also discuss the usefulness of case studies in exploring specific focus areas important to ACTION and its primary funder.
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