C4D Network

Global community of professionals working in Communication for Development

Advanced Search
  • Home
    • About Us
  • News & Events
    • Newsfeed
    • Events
    • Opportunities
  • Network Community
    • Members
    • Country Chapters
  • Learning
    • C4D Know-How
    • C4D in Action
    • Learning Resources
    • C4D Development Topics
  • Recruitment
  • Support & Services
    • Consultancy
    • Service Providers

Monitoring and Evaluating Digital Health Interventions: A practical guide to conducting research and assessment (WHO, 2016)

May 14, 2018

Since 2011, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR), the United Nations Foundation (UNF) has been supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to oversee three yearly rounds of grants to mHealth projects. A total of 26 organizations received financial investments and technical assistance towards the goal of demonstrating potential for scaling up digital health innovations to catalyse achievement of the health-focused United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The research and technical support provided through this mechanism, with assistance from the Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative (JHU-GmI), have afforded numerous opportunities to engage with and learn from implementing partners on the ground, across Asia and Africa.

This resource represents the collective learning from five years of engagement with agencies working to strengthen their digital health deployments, develop robust evaluations, and scale up their activities nationally and regionally. The lessons learnt from working with these partners are described in this document, which provides high-level guidance and systematic direction to programme planners and implementers embarking on similar journeys. Specifically, this Guide provides an introduction to the approaches and methods that were identified as useful for (i) the monitoring of project (i.e. intervention) deployments, focusing on the quality and fidelity of the intervention inputs; and (ii) the evaluation of project outputs and impacts across a number of axes, from user satisfaction to process improvements, health outcomes and cost–effectiveness.

Although more in-depth texts and curricula are available on the methods discussed, this Guide focuses on presenting pragmatic highlights and experience-informed tips for implementers to consider, together with links and resources for further study. It leads the reader through the development of value “claims”, evaluation designs and indicators associated with their digital health intervention, an assessment of the quality and availability of the data from their intervention, and finally, a series of guidelines for the reporting of findings.

Click here for full guide.

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, *REGION: Global, C4D Research and Evaluation Highlights, Health, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Publications (published in print and/or online) Tagged With: mHealth

Evaluating Humanitarian Innovation (HIF-ALNAP working paper 2017)

February 10, 2017

Over 2015-6 ALNAP, in partnership with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), looked at how to define innovation in humanitarian action, and what successful innovation looks like. 15 innovations in the humanitarian sector were chosen as case studies to provide an empirical evidence base for the final research study More than just luck: innovation in humanitarian action.

Following on from this two-year project, ALNAP and the HIF have used the findings to produce two working papers on evaluating and monitoring humanitarian innovation.

This paper looks at evaluating humanitarian innovation, from the perspective of both the evaluator and the innovator. The working paper on monitoring humanitarian innovation will be out in February 2017.

Click here for full paper.

 

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, Humanitarian, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Innovations, Publications (published in print and/or online)

The IDEAS (Innovating, Designing, Evaluating and Applying to Small-scale projects) Guide and Facilitators’ Guide (RMIT University 2016)

January 13, 2017

The IDEAS Guide is intended for organisations and people who are doing small media and communication projects. ‘IDEAS’ refers to Innovating Designing Evaluating and Applying to Small-scale. The IDEAS Guide leads users through the process of designing a project, and thinking about the project’s evaluation, with a focus on how to do useful evaluation for learning and continual project improvement. It is designed to cater for a range of different skill levels in evaluation.

The Facilitators’ Guide was developed to accompany the IDEAS Guide to help facilitators run workshops to effectively support capacity development for individuals working in grassroots and community organisations who might have little or no experience of evaluation. It may also be helpful for more experienced practitioners.

The IDEAS Guide and the Facilitators’ Guide are co-created resources, developed with feedback and contributions from media and communication practitioners as part of an action-research initiative. The co-creation process included two workshops where the tools were trialled and developed at different stages of the project.

The guides were developed in the context of a specific program (the PACMAS Innovation Fund) in the Pacific, however, the authors hope that guides can be adapted for use beyond this original context.

Click here for full guides.

An overview of the IDEAS Guide launch written by co-author Jessica Noske-Turner can be found at: http://c4dnetwork.apps-1and1.net/the-ideas-guide-learning-and-evaluating-at-a-small-scale-launch-of-new-c4d-resource/

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, C4D Research and Evaluation Highlights, Publications (published in print and/or online) Tagged With: Capacity Development, Pacific

The IDEAS Guide: Learning and Evaluating at a Small-Scale – launch of new C4D Resource (December 2016)

January 8, 2017

The IDEAS Guide was created by Jessica Noske-Turner, Heather Horst and Jo Tacchi in collaboration with ABC International Development, PACMAS, and practitioners from the Pacific. Here IDEAS GUIDE co-creator and C4D Network member Jessica Noske-Turner shares her thoughts on the IDEAS Guide’s official launch at the Symposium: Mobilising Media for Sustainable Outcomes in the Pacific event on Thursday December 8th at RMIT University, Melbourne.

The IDEAS Guide is available on the Better Evaluation Website, http://betterevaluation.org/en/resources/guide/IDEAS_Guide

Let’s face it – most evaluation guides are boring. Most are long, abstract, and assume you are happy to sit alone at a computer muddling through endless options and tables. The IDEAS Guide (which is an acronym for Innovating, Designing, Evaluating and Applying to Small-scale media and communication projects), launched in December 2016 in Melbourne, Australia, turns much conventional thinking about evaluation on its head.

While most often evaluation designs and implementation are done by evaluation professionals, the IDEAS Guide is intended as an entry level guide. It is for people who are practitioners first, who also need to do some monitoring and evaluation. Second, rather than a solo, mundane task, the IDEAS treats evaluation design as a group activity. There are 10 modules in the guide, and each one includes a hands-on activity that helps to work through the decisions that need to be made. As much as possible we use key participatory techniques with an emphasis on visual and tactile processes to spark reflections, discussions and negotiations. Those decisions can then be documented in more formal and official formats.

Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i, one of the discussants on the panel at the launch, talked about how doing an innovative project is being a bit like a sailing voyage. Faumuina was a significant part of the action research processes used to create the guide, and this metaphor  is threaded through the IDEAS Guide. ‘Sailing’, she said ‘is part of our DNA as Pacific people’. Faumuina started using the sailing metaphor in response to discussions with a donor who said ‘we have given you a road map, you need to stick to the road’. Sailing disrupts the neat, linear logic of planning and implementing, since you can’t sail in a straight line, and you can’t control the oceans and winds.

One of the other discussants on the panel at the launch, Joys Eggins, formerly of the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea and now at the PNG Media Development Initiative, said that reading the preface to the IDEAS Guide felt like the first time an evaluation guide was speaking to her. She emphasised the importance of thinking about how to integrate the guide into organisations and even university curricula. Dr Verena Thomas, another discussant from QUT and also formerly of University of Goroka, suggested that the guide is not just about building the capacity of practitioners, but also for donors to better understand the needs of C4D in relation to evaluation.

Although the IDEAS Guide has its origins in the Pacific, there is great potential for applications beyond this context. The Guide is released under a creative commons licence as is available for free download from http://betterevaluation.org/en/resources/guide/IDEAS_Guide. There is also a Facilitators’ Guide, which is for those in an evaluation coaching and capacity build role. Together with my co-authors, I am looking forward to hearing from anyone who uses the guide and has feedback or comments. We’d be especially keen to assist organisations who manage small-grants for media and communication projects adapt and incorporate the guide into their processes.

You can read Dr Jessica Noske-Turner’s full speech (8.12.2016) to officially introduce and launch the IDEAS Guide (http://digital-ethnography.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/mobilising-media-talk.pdf). Get in touch with Jessica at [email protected].

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, Australia

Using Social Media Data in International Development Research, Monitoring & Evaluation (DFID Practice Note 2016)

September 25, 2016

Abstract: The global adoption of social media has seen the user base expand to an unprecedented level. Estimates put social media membership at around 2.5 billion non unique users globally, with Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounting for over half of these. Social media data can add value to international development research, monitoring and evaluation in several ways.

These data are‘transformative’ as they are user generated in real time and produced in large volumes in contrast to the necessarily retrospective snapshots of social trends provided by conventional means such as household surveys and administrative data. As such, they can provide insight into the behaviour and opinions of specific populations that are often unreachable by conventional methods where social media uptake is high.

The examples in this pratice note show cases where social media data were available in high volume in development contexts. However,it is important to note that for some situations and regions social media data may not be available in such volumes, precluding their use to gain near real time insights

4 case studies are included:

  • Data-Pop Alliance: Big Data for Disaster Resilience
  • Assessment Capacities Project – Nepal Earthquake
  • Mapping Refugee Media Journeys
  • Nigerian Election

Click here for full study.

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, Big Data, Big Data Highlights, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Nepal, Nigeria, Publications (published in print and/or online), Research Communication & Uptake, Social Media Tagged With: Elections, Mapping, Nepal Earthquake, Refugees

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Site Navigation

Join C4D
Contact Us
Get Involved
Facebook Group
LinkedIn Group

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Social Networks

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Communication for Development Network
Registered address:
Finsbury House, New Street,
Chipping Norton, Oxon, OX7 5LL, UK
E-mail [email protected]
Non-profit Company Number: 7734410

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Copyright © 2023 C4D Network · Website by IndigoBird

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×