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INVITATION: BE A MEMBER OF THE GHANA EVALUATORS ASSOCIATION AT a recent World Bank Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) Meeting for Civil Societies, several NGOs expressed their interest in deepening their roles in assessing Public Sector Performance. The World Bank in collaboration with UNICEF, DANIDA and other international NGOs therefore organised an inaugural and training meeting of the African Evaluation Association. This meeting was aimed at supporting and creating national networks in a number of countries and advocating for the utilisation of Programme Evaluation Standards. The Programme Evaluation Standards have been used in some developed countries but almost unknown in developing countries, except in Kenya where UNICEF helped to set up a National Association of Evaluators. The main intended use of the 'Standards' is to judge the quality of evaluation designs, practices and reports. Other used include guidance for developing evaluation training objectives and materials, preparing evaluation, explaining evaluation and its uses to the public. The World Bank sponsored 4 Ghanaian participants to attend the meeting. After the meeting, participants unanimously agreed to form National Evaluation Associations in their respective countries. The Ghanaian delegates nominated themselves to be members of the Ghana Evaluators Association. They are: 1. Mr. Bishop Akolgo
- Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) ISODEC was mandated to serve as a secretariat and facilitate the convening of the first meeting, promoting the association and building a database of members. The Government of Ghana has seen the need to strengthen its Monitoring and Evaluation activities and has asked the World Bank to help them in this regard. Reforms planned include: 1. A significant
down-sizing of the public sector The scope for improvement in programme evaluation is the application of quality control measures and incentives and capacity building of local partners - government staff, employees of research institutes and private consultants. The development of Monitoring and Evaluation capacities would help ensure government's ability to measure reports on development effectiveness and to engage civil societies and NGOs more fully. Presently there are about 25 active members. These include: Mr. Lawrence Kannae
- GIMPA We wish therefore, to invite you to join the Ghana Association of Evaluators and to help build an effective monitoring and evaluation capacity for our institutions and the nation as a whole. Please fill membership form and submit. We are pleased to announce the publication of "Evaluating Social Programs and Problems: Visions for the New Millennium" by Stewart Donaldson and Michael Scriven. The volume contains diverse, cutting-edge perspectives on the future of evaluation practices by prominent evaluators and evaluation theorists. This new book was well received at the recent AEA meeting and we would like to extend its offerings to your membership. We do have a limited number of discounted copies available for $20 at Claremont Graduate University. To learn more about Evaluation at Claremont Graduate University, please visit our website at: http://www.cgu.edu/sbos/ Paul Thomas READ ABOUT THE FUTURE OF EVALUATION PRACTICE NOW! "Evaluating
Social Programs and Problems: Stewart
I. Donaldson & Michael Scriven Prominent evaluation theorists and evaluators from diverse, sometimes rival, backgrounds, and from a range of social problem solving settings assembled at the Claremont Colleges to debate how evaluation should be practiced in the 21st century. As a result of this rich, dynamic, vibrant, and sometimes contentious discourse, this volume contains the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on modern theories of evaluation practice. Stewart
I. Donaldson & Michael Scriven, Claremont Graduate University - Michael
Scriven, Claremont Graduate University - In the new millennium, applied social science will divide into the progressive, evaluation-enriched school, and the conservative evaluation-impaired school. The evaluation-impaired branch, following in the tracks of typical applied social science departments today, will gradually whither on the vine, with its aging adherents exchanging stories about the good old days. The evaluation-enriched group, continuing to be led, we hope, by Claremont Graduate University, will educate the next generation in the "Evaluative Social Sciences." A key point in the war against snake oil is that it can't be won by those who just have a Ph.D. in what is now generally thought of as the Applied Social Sciences. The missing elements in the traditional curriculum are provided in Scriven's informative and thought-provoking chapter; see "The Something More List."
David
Fetterman, Stanford University - 'Empowerment Evaluation Strikes a Responsive Cord" Yvonna
S. Lincoln, Texas A&M University - Donna
M. Mertens, Gallaudet University - Stewart
I. Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University - William
D. Crano, Claremont Graduate University - Edith
P. Thomas, U.S. Department of Agriculture - Bianca
L. Guzman, CHOICES - Melvin
M. Mark, Pennsylvania State University & Editor of the American A "vision" can refer to a thoughtful depiction of desired future states. But the term "vision" can also refer to something akin to a nightmare or a hallucination. Melvin Mark tries to sort out the thoughtful portrayals of a desired future from the more nightmarish possibilities. While there seems to be a decline in papers about the so-called paradigm wars, there are strong echoes of the paradigm wars in this volume, if not an outright resumption. Whatever peace has been achieved remains an uneasy peace. For example, it seems ironic when evaluators who espouse inclusion, empowerment, and participation would like to exclude, disempower, and see no participation by evaluators who hold different views. Whether or not the visionaries intended it that way, it is easy to read most of the visions as though they give a central place to one evaluation approach in the future. The resulting over advocacy raises the specter of a nightmarish vision. In this nightmare scenario, integration of different evaluation choices does not occur: evaluation clients are not given a full range of choices but are unduly restricted by the predilections of the evaluator; the field splinters off more rather than coalescing into a large and more influential professional association; and consequently, evaluators' visions become even more influenced by their limited sight, because they no longer can learn from those who take a different approach. Desirable visions can inspire and guide. Undesirable visions can also motivate, stimulate action to avoid the unwanted future. Impressive evaluators have shared their visions in this book. May we all be wise in how we see fit to translate them into action. Evaluating Social Programs and Problems is a valuable resource and should be considered required reading for practicing evaluators, evaluators-in-training, scholars and teachers of evaluation and research methods, and other professionals interested in improving social problem solving efforts in the new millennium. |