Evaluation and research that informs our partners’ work.
We combine qualitative and quantitative methods to help our partners improve their strategies and understand their impact.
Why do we do this work?
We work with partners whose missions align with our own: in some way they are trying to improve the lives of the communities and individuals that they work with. Evaluation and learning are fundamental to any change. It is a way to check whether we’re moving in the right direction, having the impact we’re hoping for, and to understand how our broader contexts influence our work. Ultimately, we believe in the necessity of intentional learning to guide strategy.
The process of evaluation is inextricably linked to social justice- knowledge is power. We seek to build our partners’ capacity to understand their work deeply enough so that they can have the impact they’re seeking. We take the power that we have as evaluators seriously. We acknowledge that deciding which voices to include, defining credible data, and developing standards for effectiveness have enormous implications for what we end up learning. This dedication is what underpins our efforts to actively seek to understand the contexts we’re working with as broadly as possible and to include diverse voices.
Ultimately, we strive to positively contribute to our partners’ strategies.
Our foundations
Social anthropology
Anthropology influences the emphasis we put on paying attention to the intersecting dynamics of a situation. Each project is treated as having its own culture and ecosystem that we need to understand to effect change. We use an ethnographic approach by embedding ourselves in our partners work and observing interpersonal dynamics, to inform our strategy and recommendations.
Social psychology
Social psychology similarly situates individuals’ thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours within a broader social context. This context includes interpersonal relationships, organizational dynamics and expectations, and the larger contexts of our societal norms. A social psychological perspective helps us to understand how individual-level findings can lead us toward making sense of larger social forces.
Data translation
We are skilled at making complex data and information accessible to diverse audiences. By explaining research methods in everyday language, using storytelling and narrative to make numerical findings “come alive,” and providing suggestions for how our findings could be applied, we ensure that stakeholders are able to make use of rigorous research findings to inform their efforts.
What we do
We provide research and evaluation support to our partners at any stage of their lifecycle. We conduct process or formative evaluations for partners who want to have a better understanding of a strategy in its early stages. We help them understand the why’s and how’s of their strategy so that they can adapt and evolve. We also provide impact or outcome focused evaluations for partners who want a better understanding of the ultimate result of their investments.
How we do it
We work with our partners to understand their research needs, develop the right questions, determine the best way to collect the data, pull out key themes and recommendations, and communicate the findings so that they can be integrated into their work.
We build on work that has been done before us, within and outside of the context of our partner’s work. By working closely with our partners, we begin by identifying key questions, assumptions, and strategic priorities that inform the evaluation plan. We take the time to review existing data, key documents, and previous evaluation activity to determine what information to leverage for the purposes of the project. We also conduct literature reviews to understand what others have learned in similar contexts.
The evaluation plan is the guiding document for our projects. It articulates the broadest questions that we seek to answer and how we’ll go about answering them.
Based on the nature of our research questions, we determine how and from whom data should be collected. We always consider the importance of including diverse perspectives. Sometimes we engage stakeholders before collecting information from them, so that we can orient them to the project, create a sense of trust, mutual understanding and buy in, and/or to get their input on the project’s direction.
Next, we determine the best methods for collecting high quality data. Surveys are useful for collecting consistent information from large numbers of stakeholders, while interviews or focus groups can be used for more in-depth, nuanced, qualitative information from key stakeholders. Typically, we use a combination of different data collection tools so that we have a well-rounded data set to work with.
Depending on the nature of the data, we employ rigorous and thoughtful data analysis methods to produce reliable research findings. Quantitative analyses may include descriptive statistics (What are the characteristics of this group of participants?) as well as inferential statistics (How are different variables we have measured related to one another?). We also can conduct quantitative network analyses, which help us to understand and map out the relationships between participants. If our data is qualitative, such as data we collect from interviews or focus groups, we employ analyses that help us to detect common themes across participants as well as rarer but still crucially important ideas that emerge from just a few participants.
We produce reports that include key findings and recommendations based on the research questions identified in the evaluation plan. We think it is important that the results of any research or evaluation can be used by a variety of stakeholders. Our recommendations are written so that they are easy to understand, share with others, and apply. We provide sense making sessions to our partners so that they can practice using the information and have the time and space to discuss key questions.