Rapid Evaluation

Practical Solutions to Everyday Evaluation Challenges – With an Eye on Use

The University of Witwatersrand in collaboration with the Center for Learning and Results on Evaluation (CLEAR-Africa) and the World Bank has developed this course for government and civil society professionals in Southern Africa. This one and a half day course is being held prior to the SAMEA conference.The theme of the course is how rapid evaluation can contribute to all three types of evaluation (summative, formative and developmental) providing feasible and flexible information, insights and advice without sacrificing quality.

This will be the first time the proposed training is presented as a unified professional development training. Individual elements have been developed through project-level experience (for example use-inspired research at the Packard Foundation, WURT in urban environmental service projects in India, natural and negotiated alternatives for the Hewlett Foundation and US EPA, simplifying measurement for the Hewlett Foundation and human resource development programs in Canada) and each approach has been presented as a conference presentation at the annual conferences of the Canadian Evaluation Society or the American Evaluation Association (e.g. WURT and rapid-response surveys at AEA 2009 in a Session on Rapid Response Methods for Real-Time Evaluation) . In addition the course will be directly informed by professional development workshops on evaluation in resource, environmental and conservation settings (Canadian Evaluation Society 2010 and 2011) and a series of seminars in South Africa sponsored by SAMEA and PSC in 2010.

The course is targeted at the following professionals in the public and development sectors:

• Middle to senior level managers in the public sector who are tasked programme evaluation or those who intend to move into positions that require them to be responsible for rapid evaluations.
• Practitioners in non-governmental organisations who work on programme implementation and design evaluation processes.
• Technical staff of multilateral agencies that support governments or civil society in the design and implementation of evaluations.

The course aims to equip participants to:

• Explain the essential elements of rapid evaluation
• Apply the While U R There (WURT) approach to rapid evaluation
• Describe a variety of rapid evaluation approaches
• Apply summative rapid evaluation approaches
• Describe tensions between rapid-use inspired evaluation and traditional evaluation approaches Course Duration

The course will run over one and a half days. A full day on 6 September and half a day on 7 September

Accommodation: Participants should apply as soon as possible. Accommodation is for your account.

Cost:The cost of the course is R2115 through the SAMEA website.

Certification: There is no certification for this course.

Presenter: Andy Rowe

Andy Rowe has thirty years of experience as an economist and evaluation consultant in North America, Europe, South Asia, the Western Pacific and the Caribbean. He now works primarily in the resource and environmental sector in the U.S., on evaluation of conflict resolution in the US and Canada and development assignments in India and the Western Pacific. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and is a former President of the Canadian Evaluation Society. His current evaluation clients include the Packard Foundation Conservation and Science program, the US Departments of EPA and Interior, the World Bank, Alberta Department of Municipal Affairs, and the UK Department of International Development. Presenter Experience Andy Rowe has provided professional development for evaluators since 1993:

• Canada: Essential Skills for three Chapters of the Canadian Evaluation Society, CES conference workshops on evaluation of environmental initiatives, presented papers at annual conference and Chapter events since 1990.
• US: Professional development workshops in Cost Effectiveness and Internal Evaluation at American Evaluation Association conference; presented papers annually since 1992.
• South Africa: Series of seven lectures at various locations and evaluation topics in 2010.
• Other: keynote lectures and conference presentations and academic seminars in self-help housing at venues in Canada, Italy, England, Scotland, Sweden, France 1978-1985.