Deborah [user:field_middlename] McWhinney

Deborah McWhinney

Senior Evaluation Officer
World Food Programme
Italia

My contributions

  • After Action Review

    Discussion

  • Gender and evaluation of food security

    Discussion

    • Deborah McWhinney

      Senior Evaluation Officer World Food Programme
      Italia

      Dear members,

      Sorry for catching up late on the discussion on gender and evaluation.

      One of the comments posted to the debate raised by Georgette highlighted that disparity between women and men persists in many communities and in the mindset of many people.

      I believe that, as evaluators, we should be guided by the human rights and gender equality principles to which our organizations are committed.  In fact, our own personal bias can have a significant impact on the way that we view an evaluation subject, the questions we ask, the conceptual framework that we use and the methodology that we adopt. The UN Evaluation Group Norms and Standards norm on ‘human rights and gender equality’ states that, “The universally recognized values and principles of human rights and gender equality need to be integrated into all stages of an evaluation. It is the responsibility of evaluators and evaluation managers to ensure that these values are respected, addressed and promoted, underpinning the commitment to the principle of ‘no-one left behind’.”  The UNEG standard on a human rights-based approach and gender mainstreaming strategy further elaborates that the evaluation design might also include some process of ethical review of the initial design of the evaluation subject. More specifically, the evaluation terms of reference should:

      • Indicate both duty bearers and rights holders (particularly women and other groups subject to discrimination) as primary users of the evaluation and specify how they will be involved in the evaluation process;
      • Spell out the relevant human rights and gender equality instruments or policies that will guide evaluation processes;
      • Incorporate an assessment of relevant human rights and gender equality aspects through the selection of the evaluation criteria and questions;
      • Specify an evaluation approach and methods of data collection and analysis that are human rights-based and gender-responsive;
      • Specify that evaluation data should be disaggregated by social criteria (e.g. sex, ethnicity, age, disability, geographic location, income or education);
      • Define the level of expertise needed among the evaluation team on human rights and gender equality, define responsibilities in this regard and call for a gender-balanced and culturally diverse team that makes use of national/regional evaluation expertise.

      The UNEG publication Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluations, already mentioned during this exchange, provides additional guidance on this topic.

      With regard to the specific questions raised by Georgette around data, monitoring and measurement related to evaluations in the agricultural sector, please find the following documents on this topic:

      We are proud of the diversity on this Community of Practice, which is open to all opinions and reflect the practice and realities on the ground of evaluators and professionals working across sectors at country level and hope to continue these lively exchanges.

      Deborah