With Covid-19 I see national consultants in my country more involved in evaluation. Here some responses to the questions proposed:
1. How is this shift in responsibility being managed? What institutions are involved – government, universities, NGOs, private consultancy companies or individuals?
In my context, I see three entities mostly involved in evaluation: private consultancies (mostly), universities and NGOs. Universities are very theoretical and look for details which they are unable to find on the ground level; they usually write long and challenging reports.
2. How far is this responsibility being taken? Is it still confined to data collection and analysis, or does it include greater responsibility in the management of the evaluation ?
I see both. Some evaluation companies are in charge of the complete organization, coordination and collaboration of the evaluation process on behalf of the evaluation unit. Others do only data collection and analysis.
Both are designated as National Consultants or national evaluation consultants.
3. How is this work being financed?
I think donor contributions still prevail and most programs budgets embed the evaluation budget.
I believe that due to Covid19 there is not much of cost effects due to less cost involvement of international consultancies. In my case, I am mostly hired on a daily basis or with a flat figure with perdiem.
4. What are the difficulties met?
On training: data collectors need to be trained for the task even though they are already trained.
On reporting: it is usually the national consultant task. It is very challenging and it is where experience comes in place. If you have experience in working in Country program evaluation, you get things correctly. Mostly you need to identify the process, select the documents and identifying the stakeholders. Questions and methods in most cases need to be re-designed to adapt to the local context.
Challenges faced due to Covid 19 by evaluators also include:
more review and zoom interview based on prior set questions given. How ever both parties should have a good understanding of the task and programme in detail.
interview meetings: many do not (government sectors and grassroots) feel comfortable with zoom interviews.
reporting unless if you can get your template organized well it will be bit of challenging.
RE: Making more use of local institutions in evaluation
With Covid-19 I see national consultants in my country more involved in evaluation. Here some responses to the questions proposed:
1. How is this shift in responsibility being managed? What institutions are involved – government, universities, NGOs, private consultancy companies or individuals?
In my context, I see three entities mostly involved in evaluation: private consultancies (mostly), universities and NGOs. Universities are very theoretical and look for details which they are unable to find on the ground level; they usually write long and challenging reports.
2. How far is this responsibility being taken? Is it still confined to data collection and analysis, or does it include greater responsibility in the management of the evaluation ?
I see both. Some evaluation companies are in charge of the complete organization, coordination and collaboration of the evaluation process on behalf of the evaluation unit. Others do only data collection and analysis.
Both are designated as National Consultants or national evaluation consultants.
3. How is this work being financed?
I think donor contributions still prevail and most programs budgets embed the evaluation budget.
I believe that due to Covid19 there is not much of cost effects due to less cost involvement of international consultancies. In my case, I am mostly hired on a daily basis or with a flat figure with perdiem.
4. What are the difficulties met?
On training: data collectors need to be trained for the task even though they are already trained.
On reporting: it is usually the national consultant task. It is very challenging and it is where experience comes in place. If you have experience in working in Country program evaluation, you get things correctly. Mostly you need to identify the process, select the documents and identifying the stakeholders. Questions and methods in most cases need to be re-designed to adapt to the local context.
Challenges faced due to Covid 19 by evaluators also include: