Dissemination and Use of Results from Dissemination and Use of Results from OVC Program Evaluations OVC Program Evaluations

Florence Nyangara, PhDFlorence Nyangara, PhDMEASURE Evaluation/Futures GroupMEASURE Evaluation/Futures Group

Dissemination Meeting, September 3Dissemination Meeting, September 3rdrd, 2009, 2009Washington, DCWashington, DC

Primary Objective of OVC Program Evaluations

■ Provide evidence to guide program decisions such as;Provide evidence to guide program decisions such as;

■ Scaling-up of best practices (models, strategies), andScaling-up of best practices (models, strategies), and

■ Modify & improve interventions - to make them effectiveModify & improve interventions - to make them effective

Therefore, needed to collect quality and relevant data, analyze, and use results to guide OVC programs

Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results (MEASURE) Evaluation project

Overall Data Use Strategy

Employed a comprehensive data use strategy;

Diverse stakeholders were involved throughout the study

Ensured only relevant and useful data was collected by continuous

consultations between researchers & practitioners

Data is packaged to meet the needs of target audiences

Results are used to improve programs

Comprehensive Data Use StrategyStakeholder engagement: To ensure - support, ownership,

relevance and sustainability.

Diverse stakeholders were involved (e.g. beneficiaries, program)

Capture different perspectives and information needs

Stakeholders were involved throughout the study

Get buy-in and promote ownership (consultation meetings)

Continuous communication between researchers and various stakeholders for updates (feedback).

Comprehensive Data Use Strategy

Ensured that only relevant data was collected- by holding consultation meetings with donor, program implementers, community, and beneficiaries. This helped to;

Identify key OVC program issues and information needs for service, program, and policy decisions

Identify program models for evaluation

Inform questionnaire development

Examples Example 1 - Dissemination of Case Studies:

The 1st feedback – to share information on program descriptions, implementation challenges, & opportunities

Involved - program staff and in-country stakeholders

Discussed and identified issues to consider for outcome evaluations

Example 2 - Dissemination of preliminary outcome evaluation results:

Consultations with each program & key in-country stakeholders to validate preliminary findings

Presentations at international conferences and other forums helped interpret findings

Packaging Data for and Reaching Various Audiences

Packaging information in various formats for diverse audiences

Publications: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/ovc Six case study reports for each program evaluated1. Five briefing papers specific to each of the program evaluated Two summary papers - four CORE-funded programs

Overarching paper on key findings Cost-effectiveness analysis paper

One summary paper of key findings from the three studies in Tanzania Program-specific summaries of key findings (1-page) – TSA

Dissemination meetings Program sites In-country – national level International level

1 Jali Watoto – was a mini-case study

Use of Results Workshops: Tanzania Example Facilitated two workshops with OVC stakeholders in TZ

TSA program staff (field-staff and managers)

National OVC stakeholders (Implementing partners, government, donors, bilateral agencies, etc)

Objectives of Results Use Workshops

Present and discuss the key findings

Develop actionable recommendations based on the results

Develop a data use action plan to implement each of the recommendations

Develop and agree on a mechanism to monitor the data use action plan

Follow-up plan

Use of Results: Program Staff

Findings were presented to the Salvation Army – Mama Mkubwa program staff (field-supervisors, program managers, M&E staff) from all regions

Discussions of how TSA findings could be used to inform program improvement and the well-being of OVC.

Program-specific recommendations

Developed a data use action plan

Developed and agreed on how to monitor the plan

Use of Results: National Stakeholders

Results were presented to National OVC stakeholders – service providers, policy- makers, donors in TZ

Discussions of how findings from three program evaluations could be used for decision-making.

National OVC program actionable recommendations

Developed a data use action plan

Developed and agreed on how to monitor the plan.

Example of a Recommendation

Researchers’ proposed recommendations were challenged & participants came-up with their own, e.g.

Researchers: Need to review & restructure Kids’ Clubs and home-visit activities to make them more effective.

TSA staff: volunteer motivation – through incentives.

National stakeholders: more government involvement to develop guidelines that will allow volunteer growth, recognition, and ensure sustainability.

Information Use BulletinContains:

Reactions to the findings (surprises)

Data use actionable recommendations plan (see National Tanzania) Responsibilities are assigned ( joint plans) which shows who will do what

- implicated people do something

Follow-up plans to assess if the actionable recommendations are implemented according to plan

This formalizes the follow-up plans which is often forgotten after disseminations

Qualitatively (January/February, 2010)

Process Effect: Increased demand for more data for decision-making - more programs want to conduct simple evaluations of these nature to find out if their key program components (IGA) are making a difference.

MEASURE Evaluation is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through Cooperative Agreement GHA-A-00-08-00003-00 and is implemented by the CarolinaPopulation Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with Futures Group International, ICF Macro, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, and Tulane University. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.

Visit us online at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure.Visit us online at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure.