More about me
Alena Lappo Voronetskaya is an evaluation specialist with over eight years of experience in evaluation and research, most recently for the OECD, the World Bank IEG, FAO’s Independent Office of Evaluation and IFAD. Alena is a Board Member of the European Evaluation Society (EES) and the Board of Trustees of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE). In her current role, Alena is responsible for the assessments of quality, usage and impact of OECD products by Member States and the reconceptualization of the OECD’s Value for Money Initiative.
Alena Lappo Voronetskaya
Evaluation Specialist; Board Member OECD; European Evaluation SocietyDear Members,
Following up on this timely thread on how to adapt our evaluations in the time of Covid-19, I am sharing the fresh blog from WB colleagues and experts on evaluation methods. The blog provides a decision tree "Making Choices about Evaluation Design in times of COVID-19" and some practical examples.
Alena
Alena Lappo Voronetskaya
Evaluation Specialist; Board Member OECD; European Evaluation SocietyDear colleagues,
Thank you very much to Nick for starting this very relevant topic and discussion.
I particularly would like to stress the ethical responsibility we carry as evaluators mentioned by Carlos. Some countries might not have major restriction in place yet. In fact, it would be legal for the local team to conduct focus groups and face-to-face interviews. However, it is up to an evaluator to decide whether it is ethical. This might imply that even local consultants would need to conduct data collection through online engagement tools. It had recently happened to my colleague managing an evaluation in Indonesia and Brazil where the team decided to avoid face-to-face data collection by consultants in both countries as they deemed it unethical.
As so much remains unknown about Covid-19, any decision we make with regards to our current and future evaluations will be based on imperfect data. Science presents different scenarios but some of them suggest that it might take up to 1,5 years for the health situation to stabilise. This health emergency might be a good opportunity to learn how to design a methodology for a credible evaluation at a distance.
On 1 April, our colleagues from USAID are offering a free webinar "Discussion on Challenges and Strategies for M&E in the Time of COVID-19". Interested members could register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discussion-on-challenges-and-strategies-for-me-in-the-time-of-covid-19-registration-100817255124
Best regards,
Alena