Democracy and Governance
Kate Krueger, n/a
Advisor
Pact, United States
Alysson Akiko Oakley, PhD (she/her/hers)
Vice President
Pact, United States
Rebekah Usatin, MPA
Senior Director
National Endowment for Democracy, United States
Lauren Serpe
Director, Learning, Evidence and Impact team
Pact, United States
Kate Krueger, n/a
Advisor
Pact, United States
Location: White River Ballroom H
Abstract Information: Over the past five decades, democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) support has gained momentum as a critical sector within international assistance structures. DRG program evaluators have worked to develop methods and approaches appropriate to the political nature of DRG work. DRG programming environments are characterized by shifting power dynamics, ideological conflicts, the competitive allocation of scarce resources, and the interplay between formal and informal institutions. Designing and evaluating programs amidst these environments is complex, and thus “complexity” has often been a rallying call for DRG evaluators struggling to juggle the dynamism of highly politicized contexts and often highly politicized goals. This multipaper presents the DRG innovations of evaluators, funders, and program implementers, as they have tackled complexity in their DRG evaluation work. Topics will focus on a range of approaches to complexity, ranging from conceptual, to methodological, to operational. Specifically, this panel will focus on presenting the historical evolution of DRG program evaluation, how it has shifted to a focus on complexity, the realities and opportunities of leading a portfolio-level evaluation practice of complex programs, how to build adaptive systems in response to complexity, and how to evaluate complex programs in remote or closing civic spaces. This multipaper is relevant to anyone concerned with how our political institutions can manage political conflict, and our role as evaluators in understanding and contributing to that process.
Relevance Statement: As the field of evaluation and its evaluators have learned and adapted to the evolving needs of programs and policymakers, the challenge of complexity has emerged as a critical millstone. Even as we understand more and more how interdependent and uncertain are the systems that program interventions aim to influence, so have we learned how limiting are the existing approaches that rely on controlling and simplifying those systems to enable the linear project designs that funders and policymakers value for purposes of accountability and transparency. At the same time, evaluators have worked to build new approaches that embrace and work within complexity, rather in opposition to it. This proposed multipaper builds from a recent issue of New Directions for Evaluation to present practical and cutting-edge approaches to embracing and working within complexity, drawing on lessons from a complexity-laden field, that of democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) evaluation. Authors will present papers focused on providing · methodological adaptations to measure programs working within complex systems and with emerging outcomes · new criteria for assessing the complexity-responsiveness of an evaluation or M&E system · the bigger picture of complexity in program evaluation from the point of view of funders and practitioners · concrete lessons and demonstrations drawing from DRG program evaluation, which serves as an example of highly complex programs and a quickly evolving field The multipaper will appeal to all evaluators and evaluation stakeholders interested in complexity and is aimed to be accessible to all levels of evaluation knowledge. Moreover, the DRG angle will increase the relevance of the presentation to today’s most pressing issues, linked as DRG is to fundamental issues of politics, economics, and society; topics that evaluators are beholden to address head-on through the AEA principle of common good and equity. The challenges detailed in the presentations will echo the very challenges we are dealing with in our personal, everyday lives and in our wider evaluation practice: issues of equity, voice, power, and accountability. Drawing on experiences ranging from those designing and implementing DRG program evaluations to those making strategic funding decisions based on DRG evaluation findings, this multipaper will be of interest to an audience interested in complex challenges and the nexus between method, policy, and participant empowerment. This is one of two multipaper submissions proposed that presents the findings of a recent journal issue of New Directions for Evaluation. Authors will discuss the main findings of their papers, and provide an update based on new work and peer feedback.
Presenter: Emily Bango, MA (she/her/hers) – Internews
Presenter: Rebekah Usatin, MPA – National Endowment for Democracy
Presenter: Lauren Serpe – Pact
Presenter: Mason Ingram – Pact
Presenter: Alysson Akiko A. Oakley, PhD (she/her/hers) – Pact