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What Works in Development? Impact Evaluation Conference: Mind the Gap

I’m going–are you?

The best conference I’ve been to was organized by 3ie in Cairo in 2009: Perspectives on Impact Evaluation. 3ie is very serious about finding out “what works in development” through impact evaluations. This June-Mind the Gap-will be equally stimulating with sessions on response to natural disasters, health & nutrition, diversifying livelihoods, entrepreneurship & agriculture & rural development.

Minding the Gap:  Cuernavaca, June 2011
Each year billions of dollars are spent on tackling global poverty. Development programs and policies are designed to build sustainable livelihoods and improve lives. But is there real evidence to show which programs work and why? Are government and donor policies based on concrete and credible evidence?

The Mind the Gap conference on impact evaluation will address these questions and offer possible solutions. The conference will take place in Cuernavaca, Mexico, June 15-17, 2011, and it’s co-hosted by The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the Center for Labor and Social Distributive Studies in coordination with the Impact Evaluation Network (CEDLAS-IEN).

This conference will provide a platform to share and discuss experiences on how to best achieve evidence-based policy in sectors that are highly relevant for countries in all developing regions.

Do you think it is a good idea to design development projects using programs that have shown evidence of having worked? Join in the discussion.

Be sure to visit the adaptation working group at CSDi’s Development Community. Join colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop an community centered project.

Join: CSDi Development Community.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.

Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge

Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge
Online Courses Beginning March 15:
 
What is development? Certainly, one of the goals in community-based development is for community members to cultivate their capacity to lead productive, healthy, meaningful, self-reliant lives—and to be able to contribute to the development of their communities—autonomously.
 
Last month we talked about how developing community ownership is a cornerstone of sustainable project development. This month we explore the next step of empowering the community: creating a community based project management team. Engaging community members in a committee where they will learn leadership, decision-making skills, organizational management, and gain a sound understanding of the tools and activities included the development project—is like on-the-job training.
 
How to Lead a Participatory Teambuilding Workshop:
Steps to Forming a Village Committee
1. Read the entire March 2011 Newsletter.

2. Visit these following course documents:

 

This community-based planning and oversight committee—is the community team that you will partner with on your project’s final planning stages, launch, implementation, and community takeover. Examples could be committees on water, health, education, disaster preparedness, flood control, soil restoration, reforestation, agriculture, or alternative livelihoods. I’m going to walk you through the steps of planning and organizing a workshop to do this.
Let’s analyze why you would want a village water committee. If an NGO arrives in the community with funding to develop a water system, spends a year designing and installing the water system, and then leaves, who will oversee and maintain the water system into the future?

In many development projects, as the NGO’s project nears completion, the beneficiaries have not been prepared to receive the continuation of project activities (e. g. maintaining a new water system). For example, in a recent report, it was noted that almost 50% of village water projects in developing nations fell into disuse within two years. One of the reasons cited is that community members were not trained in the management of the systems nor in their maintenance. The formation and training of community-based management committees can work to solve this challenge.

When a community is engaged in developing a project that meets their needs, and is involved in project implementation, is trained in the maintenance of project outputs—and when this process is overseen by a responsible committee—the project has a much greater likelihood of being successful in the long term.

What are your thoughts on communiity members partnering in an NGO supported project?

 

Learn how to develop an community centered project.

Join: CSDi Development Community.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.

Upcoming Online Development Courses: March 2011

CSDi Online Courses Capture a True Field Experience
Are you a donor, a development practitioner, in a job transition, or a student who wants to learn more about what works in designing impact-oriented projects?

Our online courses use each class assignment as a concrete step in developing a real project within a real community. You will take an assignment into the field and use it as a solution-oriented activity that you do together with community members—thereby finishing one component of the project you are developing in the class. And there you have it: an online field course with tangible, concrete results.

Don’t have community access? No problem: we partner you with a fellow student in a developing nation who does. Click on the course links below to see syllibi, course fees, and to enroll.

341. Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change 1: Designing & Funding CBA Projects. March 15 – May 16, 2011. Contemporary methods of developing sustainable, impact-oriented projects. Gain practical field experience using evidence-based activities & develop a real project in real time. Student CBA projects have included efforts to help communities in Yemen, Morocco, Tanzania and Cameroon recover from unprecedented droughts that exhausted their water sources.

342. Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change 2: Planning for Impact. March 15 – May 2, 2011. Imbed impact into your adaptation project with a powerful set of management tools. LogFrames, detailed budgets, timelines, compelling fact sheets, M&E plans, outcomes and impact. These tools will communicate to donors and stakeholders exactly what you are trying to accomplish—and can be used for effective management of the project once funded.

343. Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change 3: The Community Focus. May 17 – July 11, 2011. What does climate change adaptation mean at the community level? What practical tools are available today for communities to use in adaptation? Use local knowledge to learn about vulnerability, adaptive capacity & traditional strategies. For practitioners who wish to begin working now at the community level to successfully adapt to the challenges that face us.

344. Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change 4: Sustainable Implementation. March 15 – May 2, 2011. How do you launch & implement a community-based adaptation project? The importance of community engagement. Developing skill sets for your community to use in the adaptation process. Learning tools: monitoring & evaluation. Community empowerment during project hand-over. Designing in sustainability, follow-up, mentoring & participatory M&E.

303. Food Security, Nutrition and Home Gardens 1: March 15 – May 16, 2011. Implement a 12-month family gardening project. Develop a baseline of your community’s food security and nutritional levels. Learn about food security, good nutrition, and the garden activities that support them—and then learn how to build a project that puts your community on the path to using their own skills to address their specific needs. Become the Solution.

304. Food Security, Nutrition and Home Gardens 2: March 15 – May 2, 2011. How do you care for & maintain a food garden? How do you control pests? What happens if you have desert soil—or a shortage of water? Learn how to combine garden produce with daily staples to prepare nutritious meals that contain vitamins A, C and D. Increase family understanding of kitchen hygiene, cooking, and nutrition—including using delicious nutrition-packed recipes.

101. From the Ground Up: Designing & Funding Sustainable Projects. March 15 – May 16, 2011. Develop a Real Project in Real Time. We’ll walk you, step-by-step, through a community-based project using proven methods. Learn a range of skills including participatory needs assessments, community capacity building workshops, and evidence-based project design. You will learn strategies from others in the class facing similar challenges. Become the Solution.

102. Project Architecture: Planning for Impact. March 15, – April 25, 2011. Imbed impact into your 101 project design with powerful management tools. LogFrames, detailed budgets, schedules, compelling fact sheets, M&E plans, outcomes & impact. These tools will communicate to donors & stakeholders exactly what your project will accomplish, and lead the effective management of the project once funded.

The Courses also Provide the Following Resources:

Weekly discussions, and assignment examples & templates
Documents on course topics by contemporary experts.
Books, posters and manuals available online for download.
Internet development links organized by sector.
Class forum for posting questions to your classmates.
Access to tools and resources on the Center site.
There are no books to buy—all course materials can be linked to, or downloaded from the course site.

Online course participants are using our courses to develop real, on-the-ground projects with real communities individually and through cross-hemisphere student partnerships. People from 92 different countries and 200 organizations have used our courses to develop projects that impact over 70,000 people.

Be sure to visit our Online Development Community to see groups that support our courses.

Would you like to learn more about what the courses are like? Just visit these pages:

Student Testimonials

International Partnerships

Learning Environment

Student Field Projects

Example Assignment: Kenya

Student Countries, Organizations, Project Challenges