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Session Title: The Effect of Political Values and Expectations on Evaluation: Perspectives From Different Countries
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Panel Session 497 to be held in Santa Monica on Thursday, Nov 3, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Theories of Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Jody Fitzpatrick, University of Colorado at Denver, jody.fitzpatrick@ucdenver.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Ross Conner, University of California Irvine, rfconner@uci.edu
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| Abstract:
The political nature of evaluation was recognized early in evaluation literature. However, evaluators have not consciously considered the political values of stakeholders: their views of the roles of government in society; their faith, suspicions, and valuing of their government and its leaders; their values concerning government accountability and transparency; their perceptions of the rights of various stakeholder groups; and so on. This panel will focus on the concept of political culture, its dimensions and variations, and its role in the context and practice of evaluation. Panel members working in evaluation in various countries and regions - the United States, Brazil, Burkina Faso in Africa, South Asia, and developing countries - will describe and discuss political values that influence evaluation including citizens' and other stakeholders' perspectives on the necessity and nature of accountability, equity, participation, government, and evaluation itself.
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Political Culture: A Source of Values for Evaluation
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| Jody Fitzpatrick, University of Colorado at Denver, jody.fitzpatrick@ucdenver.edu
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The term political culture was created by Daniel Elazar to study differences in political values, institutions, and actions in American states. This session will describe his research on variables that define political culture and research in international public administration which compares countries on political values, actions, and outcomes. This presenter will describe this literature and use the dimensions and constructs to describe and define political issues that influence evaluation practice in different contexts, in particular, in different countries. For example, Taylor (2006) in comparing Australia and Hong Kong on implementation of performance measurement implementation found context to be vital. Similarly, Radin's comparison of the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia (2003) found political values in each country to have a strong influence on performance management. The literature will be linked to contextual theory in evaluation including Rog's model of context and its influence on evaluation and Greene's writings on values.
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Evaluation Values in Brazil: Control, Legitimacy, Learning and Transparency
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| Marcia Paterno Joppert, Brazilian Evaluation Agency, marciapaterno@agenciadeavaliacao.org.br
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This presentation will describe the connections between the values of the Brazilian democratic process and some of the major characteristics and views of evaluation: the coexistence of external control organizations, focused mainly on accountability; the use of evaluation to legitimate policies; and the view of evaluation as a tool for managing for results, learning and transparency. Results of recent research concerning the demand and the supply of measurement and evaluation (M & E) services and the development of evaluation practice in Brazil, by both the public and private sector, will also be presented. The interests of many stakeholders in developing knowledge and practice of evaluation is growing in Brazil and is causing the rise of new kinds of movements and institutions to organize this community and to introduce M&E further into the societal agenda.
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Developing Rural Womens' Understandings of Social Accountability for Local Governments in Burkina Faso
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| Issaka Traore, ReBuSe, AfrEA Board, issakatraore@yahoo.com
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This presentation will focus on the different, and changing, views of social accountability in one West African nation, Burkina Faso. In the rural areas of Burkina Faso, social accountability is a concept unknown to the majority of citizens. And many in key decision-making circles prefer that. This presentation will discuss the values that influence the different views of social accountability in Burkina Faso and how these values, central to evaluation and to citizen empowerment, differ in urban and rural areas and among educated and illiterate citizens. These views, then, affect citizens' expectations concerning municipal governments. Social accountability can, however, become an empowerment tool. I will describe a program developed by The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs to change non-elected women's understandings of social accountability in 21 rural municipalities and the assessments and analyses around this program that shed light on the meanings of social accountability.
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Values and Valuing in Equity-Focused Development Programming and Evaluation
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| Michael Bamberger, Independent Consultant, jmichaelbamberger@gmail.com
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There is increasing recognition that assessing progress of developing countries in terms of monetary indicators, such as the proportion of the population below a poverty-line, and the use of average indicators (percentage of children suffering from different degrees of malnutrition) can present a misleading picture for the total population. Average scores mean that the situations of vulnerable or remote communities or even differences between household members may be overlooked. Many development agencies are moving towards an equity-focus planning and evaluation system that examines the status of vulnerable populations and highlights groups not benefiting from development. Equity analysis often challenges official estimates that poverty is declining and raises sensitive political questions concerning the status of women or ethnic minorities. These approaches raise important issues of personal and political values, how development is valued and how far development agencies are willing to raise sensitive issues with national governments.
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Political Environments in South Asian Countries: An Analysis of Their Effects on Evaluation Policies and Use
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| Shubh Kumar-Range, Community of Evaluators for South Asia, shubhk.range@gmail.com
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This panelist will describe her analysis of political conditions in South Asian countries and how they are changing. Using the World Bank implementable governance indicators, she explores the impact of two political indicators: (a) top-down governance environment (for example, regulatory quality) and (b) bottom up governance environments on the types of evaluation, their use, and evaluation policies. She finds that changes in these two types of political environments (improvements or deteriorations) have very different impacts on evaluations and evaluation policies.
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