Ellen Lewis (PhD) is a global organization development consultant, evaluator and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Systems Studies, Faculty of Business, Law and Politics, University of Hull, United Kingdom. Ellen works with public, private and community organizations to help them thrive in the face of change, complexity and uncertainty. She is a systems thinker who pays attention to how organizational and social systems attend to gender equality, environmental sustainability and habitability, social justice, youth development, economic well-being, cultural contexts and community engagement. Ellen has lived and/or worked in Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, United Kingdom and the United States. Ellen is most active working in global development contexts conducting evaluations and building capacity using inclusive, participatory and culturally responsive processes. She is bilingual in English and Spanish and is co-author of a UN Women evaluation guide called Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender equality, Environments and Marginalized voices (ISE4GEMs): A new approach for the SDG era (2018).
Ellen D. Lewis
Ellen D. Lewis
Managing Director
Ethos of Engagement Consulting
United States of America
Ellen D. Lewis
Managing Director Ethos of Engagement ConsultingDear Luisa and Lavinia,
Thank you for your email which made me smile broadly. A recently published a UN Women guide, which I co-authored, Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender equality, Environments and Marginalized voices (ISE4GEMs) holds capacity development of evaluands, beneficiaries, stakeholders at the heart of its methodology (see link to guide below). I also have included a link to a publication from Danny Burns, a colleague in the UK that is doing this exact work with very marginalized groups.
We used this approach in Guatemala with six communities of indigenous artisans, local partners, and the sponsoring NGO with great success. All participants seemed to better understand, describe and clarify the intended and unintended impact of the program in which they had participated. They were also able to identify non-human marginalized voices (e.g. their culture, climate change) which contributed to positive and negative outcomes of their involvement with the NGO program.
I will be adapting and using ISE4GEMs in two upcoming development evaluation projects in Cambodia, Vanuatu, Kenya and Colombia and will be able to share more about how the capacity development bolstered (or not) the evaluation after July 2019.
ISE4GEMs: http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2018/9/ise4gems-a-new-approach-for-the-sdg-era#view
Danny Burns: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377221717310366
I would welcome scheduling a call with you to talk about your experiences and learn more about your work. I am based in California, USA.
Ellen D. Lewis
Ethos of Engagement, USA