On September 23, 2020, The Caribbean Evaluators International (CEI), joined a number of international organizations in the implementation of the global #Eval4Action campaign. This campaign is geared towards increasing widespread recognition of the role of evaluation in development, for instance regarding accelerating the response and recovery to COVID-19, the achievement of the Global Goals by 2030, or facilitating commitments to action by decision-makers. Hosting the first in their series of virtual dialogues, the CEI launched the Caribbean component of the campaign under the theme ‘No One Left Behind’. CEI is a membership-network of monitoring, evaluation, and development professionals focused on advancing evaluative practice in the Caribbean.
The webinar, hosted by CEI President Valerie Gordon, featured a panel discussion with three experts – Susan Branker Greene (Barbados), Yvonne Peterson (US Virgin Islands), and Ivan Somlai (Canada). Together with over 30 participants from across the region, they discussed the importance of robust Caribbean data and functioning data systems is to enable the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized people in development.
The panelists discussed how data and data systems can ensure that ‘No one left behind’ becomes more than a tagline. The common sentiment among them was that the region needs to appreciate the value that data provides. The panelists agreed that organizations also need to communicate better why certain data are being collected.
“First of all, the confidence that data are correct is vital. Additionally, data need to fit within a context and respond to specific knowledge needs. The context and needs can be culturally defined,” stated Ivan Somlai, Director of Ethnobureaucratica and also Director Research and Publications of CEI.
Somlai advocates that development should be underpinned by ethical, gender-sensitive, interdisciplinary, and participatory interactions. Robust consultation with programme implementers and beneficiaries is critical to understand what data is missing and why it is missing. This helps to avoid false conclusions and perpetuation of problems.
Susan Branker Greene, a seasoned international development practitioner, and evaluator, expanded on the need to collect data which are meaningful to the Caribbean context. She said that data collection should be linked to the questions we are trying to answer to enhance utilization. “What data do we collect and why do we collect these? There is often a disconnect with the need,” Branker Greene said, who is also Vice-President of CEI. “We should collect good quality data on a handful of indicators, ensure that the data feeds into systems and is used!”
Director of the Virgin Islands Developmental Disabilities Council, Yvonne Peterson, added the need to understand all aspects of our programs and build capacity at all levels. “We need to ensure that data are collected at various levels, as defined by a Theory of Change, to investigate if what we do is what we should be doing”. Petersen, speaking from her experience addressing risk factors among members of families living in low-income and high-crime communities, went on to emphasize the importance of leadership development among the most vulnerable. They can be helped to be more active in the decision-making around programs that directly impact them, including pertinent data collection and analysis.
The role of international partners in advancing development that has people at its core was also highlighted. Commissioners of research and evaluation should prioritize processes that instill planning, management, and evaluative skills. They should support the development and collection of customized indicators identified by the program implementers. These help to move reporting from being a compliance task to one where data is viewed as an organizational asset that can be leveraged to increase success.
The panelists concluded that data collection should be understandable and understood. Monitoring and evaluation should be part of the project and programme cycles from inception and integrated within existing reporting structures. Funders were encouraged to establish ‘social contracts’ for greater accountability and better learning.
The second virtual dialogue in this series is scheduled for October 21, 2020. It will focus on using evaluations to improve programs. Caribbean Evaluators can be followed on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Additionally, the CEI website provides information on future events and on joining CEI.
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