Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Resource: Reproductive Health Indicators Database
This announcement about a very useful resource came through on SAMEA talk earlier this week.
MEASURE Evaluation Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) project launches new Family Planning/Reproductive Health Indicators Database
The Family Planning/Reproductive Health Database is an updated version of the popular two-volume Compendium of Indicators for Evaluating Reproductive Health Programs (MEASURE Evaluation, 2002).
New features include:
* a menu of the most widely used indicators for evaluating family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) programs in developing countries
* 35 technical areas with over 420 key FP/RH indicators, including definitions, data requirements, data sources, purposes and issues
* links to more than 120 Web sites and documents containing additional FP/RH indicators
This comprehensive database aims to increase the monitoring and evaluation capacity, skills and knowledge of those who plan, implement, monitor and evaluate FP/RH programs worldwide. The database is dynamic in nature, allowing indicators and narratives to be revised as research advances and programmatic priorities adapt to changing environments.
Monday, July 11, 2011
South African Consumer Databases
Today, their email carried an announcement about a new service called XtracT beta which apparently allows you to "crosstab anything against anything"
They say:
XtracT is the easiest way to access consumer information databases in South Africa. Just choose what interests you (demographics, psychographics, products, media, etc), and a filter if you wish, and a flexible cross-tabulation will appear.Details about how it works can be found on the XtracT website, and they even have a short tutorial video to explain it.
In case you wondered about their logo... This t-shirt might give you a hint!
Friday, July 08, 2011
Evaluation Basics 101 - Involve the users in the design of your instruments
Early this week, I got back from my work-related travel to Kenya, but then I ran straight into two full days of training. We planned to train the staff of a client on a new observation protocol that we developed for them to use. The new tool was based on a previous tool they had used. Before finalising the tool, we took time to discuss the tool with a small group of the staff and checked that they thought it could work. We thought the training would go well.
Drum roll...It didn't. On a scale of 0 to going well, we scored a minus 10. It felt like I had a little riot on hand when I started with "This is the new tool that we would like you to use".
Thinking about it - I should have crashed and burned in the most spectacular way. Instead, I took a moment with myself, planted a slap on my forehead, uttered a very guttural "Duh!" and mentally paged through "Evaluation Basics 101 - kindergarten version". Then I smiled, sighed, and cancelled the afternoon's training agenda. I replaced it with an activity that I introduced as: "This is the tool that we would like to workshop with you so that we can make sure that you are happy with it before you start to use it".
Some tips if ever you plan to implement a new tool (even if it is just slightly adjusted) in an organization:
1) Get everybody who will use the tool, to participate in the designing of the tool
2) Do not think that an adjustment to an already existing tool exempts you from facilitating the participatory process
3) Do not discuss the tool with only a small group from the eventual user-base. Not only will the other users who weren't consulted riot, even the ones that had their say in the small group are likely to voice their unhappiness.
When we were done, the tool looked about 80% the same as it did at the start, and they did not complain about its length, its choice of rating scale or the underlying philosophy again.
Lesson learnt. (For the second time!)
Drum roll...It didn't. On a scale of 0 to going well, we scored a minus 10. It felt like I had a little riot on hand when I started with "This is the new tool that we would like you to use".
Thinking about it - I should have crashed and burned in the most spectacular way. Instead, I took a moment with myself, planted a slap on my forehead, uttered a very guttural "Duh!" and mentally paged through "Evaluation Basics 101 - kindergarten version". Then I smiled, sighed, and cancelled the afternoon's training agenda. I replaced it with an activity that I introduced as: "This is the tool that we would like to workshop with you so that we can make sure that you are happy with it before you start to use it".
Some tips if ever you plan to implement a new tool (even if it is just slightly adjusted) in an organization:
1) Get everybody who will use the tool, to participate in the designing of the tool
2) Do not think that an adjustment to an already existing tool exempts you from facilitating the participatory process
3) Do not discuss the tool with only a small group from the eventual user-base. Not only will the other users who weren't consulted riot, even the ones that had their say in the small group are likely to voice their unhappiness.
When we were done, the tool looked about 80% the same as it did at the start, and they did not complain about its length, its choice of rating scale or the underlying philosophy again.
Lesson learnt. (For the second time!)
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