Evaluation events

Course Summary

This course aims to introduce participants to the theory and practice of Contribution Analysis

The course is structured as a series of mini-modules, each starting with a theoretical introduction, and ending with a practical (group) exercise

The examples used in this course are taken from different policy sectors: international development, education, child protection, and social protection / unemployment.

Knowing the methodology’s goals, requirements, procedures, and basic conceptual elements relates to commissioning, preparing, as well as conducting the evaluation.

Audience

This training is suitable for anyone involved in evaluation. The course is foundational and can be taken by those with little to no experience in evaluation, taking the participant through a step-by-step journey

Some elements of this course will also appeal to an audience with intermediate knowledge and for those with more experience, because it presents Contribution Analysis in an original light, as a “unified” qualitative impact evaluation approach which shares ideas and key concepts from other QIE / Theory-Based Evaluation approaches (explanation, context, alternatives, causal necessity and sufficiency, and rigorous assessment of evidence strength).

This course is very relevant for evaluators and evaluation officers / professionals across different sectors..

Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn:

• how contribution is different from attribution
• key concepts in evaluation: explanation of outcomes, alternative theories, context, causal necessity and sufficiency, rigorous assessment of evidence strength
• how Contribution Analysis brings these together
• how to rigorously assess evidence strength
• the potential and limitations of Contribution Analysis

Trainer: Barbara Befani

Barbara Befani is a leading evaluation specialist with 23 years of experience, mostly spent in designing and testing innovative evaluation methods. A leader in the theory-based impact evaluation field, Barbara Befani is the author of widely cited seminal publications on qualitative impact evaluation, a former Secretary General of the European Evaluation Society (EES) and an editorial board member of the journal Evaluation.

Barbara is Research Director in the Centre for Evaluation at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), and was previously Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, and Research Associate at the University of East Anglia.

Barbara holds a (European) PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (thesis in Evaluation Methodology) as well as an MSc in Social Statistics.

Course summary
This 2 half-day online workshop provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the art of evaluation. Whether you’re stepping into the field for the first time or simply want to refresh your knowledge, this workshop equips you with the skills and confidence needed to navigate the complexities of evaluation in the messy real-world.

This course covers how to scope and plan effective evaluations, including using theory of change. You will learn how to engage stakeholders effectively, manage evaluation processes efficiently, and design evaluations that are both impactful and achievable within your context and resources. With interactive case studies, you’ll practise applying these principles to real-life scenarios, ensuring you leave with practical tools you can use immediately.

Led by experienced practitioners, this interactive course draws on real-world examples and insights to ensure your learning is both relevant and directly applicable to your work.

Who is the course for?
This workshop is designed for anyone looking to enhance their evaluation skills, including:

• Those who are new to evaluation and seeking a strong foundation.
• Individuals commissioning or managing evaluations who want to better understand the process.
• Managers who need to evaluate new projects or programmes.
• Professionals with previous experience in evaluation who wish to refresh or update their skills.
• Those considering a change of career.

What will you learn?
By the end of the two half-day sessions, you will:

• Understand and be able to articulate what evaluation is—and what it is not.
• Understand how to use theories of change and logic models to shape evaluations.
• Recognise the range of roles an evaluator can play.
• Clarify the purpose and use of an evaluation to ensure it delivers meaningful results.
• Develop practical tools and strategies to overcome common constraints and design evaluations that fit your resources and context.
• Distinguish between different evaluation approaches and understand their relevance in specific circumstances.
• Through the use of case studies and practical exercises, you’ll have the opportunity to apply these concepts in a hands-on, interactive environment.

Who will teach the course?
Georgie Parry-Crooke
In addition to designing, conducting and managing social research and evaluation for many years, Georgie developed and delivered post-graduate evaluation courses including a Masters programme at London Metropolitan University. Georgie has also designed and delivered courses for government departments including a five-day course for DFID and NGOs; voluntary sector organisations; for the UK Evaluation Society and a week-long course for UNICEF in South Asia. She joined the Tavistock Institute in 2016 where she continued to facilitate training and workshops on evaluation, theory of change and the Dynamics of Evaluation. In 2019, she led the Tavistock Institute’s team delivering evaluation capacity building for the British Council with Ipsos UK and more recently, Department of Transport and Department for International Trade evaluation seminar series.

Sally Cupitt
Sally previously ran evaluation and impact consultancy teams at NCVO and Charities Evaluation Services (CES). She has carried out a wide range of external evaluations and helped hundreds of organisations self-evaluate, through training or consultancy support. She has helped organisations develop theories of change, and used these as the framework for evaluation plans and processes. Sally developed CES’ outcomes-focused training and co-designed and co-delivered the pioneering, award-winning National Outcomes Programme, cascading outcomes training through England. She has trained hundreds of organisations in a range of evaluation skills, including theory of change and evaluation planning. Sally has made a significant contribution to the practice of evaluation in the UK voluntary sector, writing some of the first widely-used publications in the field, and working on cross-sectoral initiatives to improve evaluation skills.

Practical guidance, underpinned by a sound theoretical framework, unpacking a process of explicit evaluative reasoning and the use of mixed methods.

Course Summary
It is important for good resource allocation, accountability, learning and improvement that policies, programs and other initiatives undergo rigorous evaluations of value for money (VfM). Many evaluators, however, lack training and experience in this area.

This 2 half-day, online-only workshop offers a set of techniques to address that gap. Combining strengths of evaluation and economics, the approach builds on theory and practice that will already be familiar to many evaluators, though there are also evaluators and commissioners to whom these techniques may be new.
This workshop includes a brief overview of economic methods of evaluation (e.g. cost-benefit analysis) including considerations for determining when to use these methods in a VfM assessment and when to combine them with other methods. It doesn’t provide detailed instruction in the design and implementation of economic evaluations, as there are other courses that focus on economic methods of evaluation.

Audience
The training is designed for evaluation commissioners, researchers, evaluators, and monitoring, evaluation and learning specialists of all levels from novice to expert.

The training is suitable for those who want to learn about rubrics generally, as well as those who want to learn how to apply rubrics to value for money specifically.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn how to:

• Frame an evaluative question about VfM
• Develop rubrics, comprising criteria (aspects of performance) and standards (levels of performance), to provide a transparent basis for making sound judgements about VfM
• Combine multiple sources of evidence to support nuanced evaluative judgements
• Incorporate economic evaluation within a VfM framework, where feasible and appropriate
• Interpret the evidence, using criteria and standards, to make sound evaluative judgements
• Present a clear and robust performance story, guided by the criteria and standards.

Trainers
The trainers for any given instance of a training course may vary depending on scheduling. Your trainers for this course will be one or more of the following individuals. Specific trainers will be indicated on the booking portal details for a specific instance of a training course.

Julian King
Julian specialises in evaluation and value for money. Julian’s PhD research developed the Value for Investment system that will be shared in this workshop (www.julianking.co.nz/vfi/). Julian received the 2021 Australian Evaluation Society Evaluation Systems Award, recognising the widespread adoption and use of the approach. Julian has delivered workshops on this approach for evaluation societies and private sector organisations in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA, Africa, Asia, and to UKES (with Alex Hurrell, in 2018).

Alex Hurrell
Alex is Head of Evaluation at Verian (formerly known as Kantar Public UK). He has over 15 years’ experience in designing and leading large-scale and complex evaluations, with specific specialist expertise in theory-based evaluation, quantitative impact evaluation and VFM assessment. He was previously the Director of OPM’s Social Policy and Statistics & Evidence Programmes, and prior to that led OPM’s Monitoring and Evaluation team.

Frances Hansford
Frances Hansford has a wealth of experience using a holistic, evaluative approach to VfM assessment. She has helped diverse programmes funded by FCDO, DEFRA and DFAT to set up their own VfM frameworks, integrate VfM assessment into broader evaluations, and conduct VfM assessments, and provided training and coaching in VfM assessment.

Daniel Wate
Daniel Wate specialises in the management of large and complex international programmes. He has ten years of experience developing VfM frameworks and conducting VfM assessments for programmes and organisations. He was previously Co-Lead of the Oxford Policy Management’s VfM Technical Community of Practice and is currently Assistant Director of Programmes at Options Consultancy providing oversight of global programmes including supporting teams to deliver VfM. He is particularly interested in how VfM approaches can generate and apply learning to improve the performance of project and programme delivery.

Zara Durrani
Zara Durrani is a senior consultant in the Education Practice at Oxford Policy Management (OPM) and leads its work on Inclusive Education. She has over 10 years’ experience specialising in design, management, and policy analysis for large-scale social development projects, particularly using qualitative and mixed methods. Zara has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, and South- and East-Asia. Her interests include gender, quality and inclusive education, and public finance for development. Zara has led numerous evaluation, training and capacity building assignments, including currently working on a payment by results verification project in Tanzania, and developing and reporting against value for money (VfM) frameworks for the Data and Research in Education – Research Consortium (DARE-RC) and Sub-National Governance II (SNG II) programmes in Pakistan, and the Assessment and Examinations Reform Support (AERS) in Myanmar. Zara has experience working with the Ministry of Finance Govt. of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan). She has worked out of OPM’s Pakistan and U.K. offices (presently based in the U.K.) and is an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Shiva Faramarzifar
Shiva Faramarzifar is an experienced senior programme manager and VfM consultant at OPM. Shiva co-leads OPM’s VfM Technical Community of Practice and is a VfM Lead on several programmes – developing frameworks, supporting regular VfM reporting, and conducting annual assessments using the King/OPM approach.

Patrick Ward

Patrick Ward is the Technical Director for Evidence and Evaluation at Oxford Policy Management. He leads the Value for Money community of practice in OPM and co-authored OPM’s second edition guide to assessing VfM. He has more than 25 years' experience in leading work in evaluation and monitoring, using a wide range of methods and data sources, for large-scale cash transfer, health, education and nutrition programmes in Africa and Asia. He is a member of the UK Government’s Evaluation and Trials Advisory Panel.

Esther Namukasa

Esther Namukasa is currently responsible for planning, researching and leading value for money (VfM) audits and investigations across the UK government, while working alongside sector or topic specialists, analysts and qualified accountants as well as applying robust quantitative and qualitative analytical skills. Previously she has engaged in multiple evaluations as a VFM consultant.

Exploring how & why programmes and interventions work to produce certain outcomes – ‘what works for whom, in what circumstances, and why’.

Course Summary
This two half-day online course will look to introduce the main components and philosophy of realist evaluation and endeavour to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to apply realist evaluation in their specific context. It will use examples and resources to aid in the learning and look to use the experience and current roles of participants to highlight how realist evaluation can be implemented.

The training will cover areas such as why realist evaluation is important and how to apply it, as well as looking in more detail at areas such as programme theory and explanatory statement building, how to explore these, ways to test and refine your theories and assumptions, and how to analyse and present these to relevant stakeholders.

The course also includes some case study material from real life projects undertaken by the trainers, demonstrating areas such as how to design a realist evaluation and how to apply and interpret data. It will also highlight how to work with stakeholders in a participatory way, how to overcome challenges, and generally bring realist evaluation to life.

Audience
This training is suitable for anyone involved in evaluation who is interested in understanding complexity and the explanations behind the outcomes we see in programmes, interventions and systems. This may apply to evaluators and practitioners who are new to realist evaluation as well as those who may have experience of the approach and wish to refresh their knowledge.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn:

• The philosophical foundations of realist evaluation and be able to demonstrate an understanding of realist evaluation.
• Key principles for developing programme theories and explanatory accounts.
• Key principles for exploring and testing programme theories in evaluation.
• Key principles for refining programme theories in evaluation.
• How to communicate findings and learning from a realist evaluation.
• The strengths and weaknesses of applying realist evaluation.
• How realist evaluation aligns with other evaluation methods.

Trainers
The trainers for any given instance of a training course may vary depending on scheduling. Your trainers for this course will be one or more of the following individuals. Specific trainers will be indicated on the booking portal details for a specific instance of a training course.

Dr Kevin Harris
Kevin is an established evaluator and Associate Professor heading up FHA Consulting. He brings a wealth of contextual knowledge and experience from working in sport, health and physical activity. He specialises at a national level in realist evaluations, professional capacity building and collaborative working with community-based organisations. Dr Harris’s main research interests lie within the areas of evidence, and realist collaborative approaches to evaluation with practitioners in sports management, sport for development and public health. Dr Harris has published widely around this area and has recently published the first ‘Evaluation’ book of its kind focused on evidence in sport and leisure with Routledge. He is passionate about knowledge exchange disseminating academic knowledge into the real world.

Louis Ryan
Louis is an evaluator with experience in innovative evaluation methods in systems/place-based approaches. He also provides training to stakeholders and community representatives around evaluation methods and fostering evaluative thinking. He has previous experience as a practitioner working for a charity to engage young people in sport and physical activity.

Course Summary
What do you need to enhance how you navigate through evaluation? This workshop offers an opportunity to work this through by identifying and using facilitation skills in practice.
This engaging workshop includes learning through action activities and offers opportunities for participants to explore a broad set of facilitation skills that are needed across an evaluation – from setting up, to data gathering, managing the process, dealing with conflict, all the way through to sharing learning, to arrive at effective and useful evaluation.

This 2 half-day, online-only workshop will help participants explore a broad set of people and facilitation skills that are needed across an evaluation – from setting up, to data gathering, managing the process, dealing with conflict, all the way through to sharing learning, to arrive at effective and useful evaluation.

Audience
This workshop is for anyone new to the field of evaluation, such as those who:

• Have just taken up an evaluation role
• Commission or manage others who undertake evaluation
• Are a manager who wants to evaluate a new project or programme

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, you will have:

• familiarity with key facilitation skills needed for effective evaluation practice
• increased confidence in using different skills and styles of facilitation in different evaluation settings
• ideas of how to engage stakeholders in your evaluations
• practical recommendations for planning and managing facilitation
• take away tips for good facilitation practice

Trainers
The trainers for any given instance of a training course may vary depending on scheduling. Your trainers for this course will be one or more of the following individuals. Specific trainers will be indicated on the booking portal details for a specific instance of a training course.

Georgie Parry-Crooke
In addition to designing, conducting and managing social research and evaluation for many years, Georgie developed and delivered post-graduate evaluation courses including a Masters programme at London Metropolitan University. Georgie has also designed and delivered courses for government departments including a five-day course for DFID and NGOs; voluntary sector organisations; for the UK Evaluation Society and a week-long course for UNICEF in South Asia. She joined the Tavistock Institute in 2016 where she continued to facilitate training and workshops on evaluation, theory of change and the Dynamics of Evaluation. In 2019, she led the Tavistock Institute’s team delivering evaluation capacity building for the British Council with Ipsos UK and more recently, Department of Transport and Department for International Trade evaluation seminar series.

Sally Cupitt
Sally previously ran evaluation and impact consultancy teams at NCVO and Charities Evaluation Services (CES). She has carried out a wide range of external evaluations and helped hundreds of organisations self-evaluate, through training or consultancy support. She has helped organisations develop theories of change, and used these as the framework for evaluation plans and processes. Sally developed CES’ outcomes-focused training and co-designed and co-delivered the pioneering, award-winning National Outcomes Programme, cascading outcomes training through England. She has trained hundreds of organisations in a range of evaluation skills, including theory of change and evaluation planning. Sally has made a significant contribution to the practice of evaluation in the UK voluntary sector, writing some of the first widely-used publications in the field, and working on cross-sectoral initiatives to improve evaluation skills.

Course Summary

Process Tracing is the systematic analysis of contribution claims through explicit investigation of how pieces of evidence support or undermine a particular hypothesis or claim.

Process Tracing is particularly good for the analysis of single scenarios where no comparison to other cases is possible. It focuses on the causal contribution of particular events to final outcomes by carefully classifying the contribution of identified causes by necessity and sufficiency.

Audience

A masterclass for those working at all levels in consultancy, NGOs, government, academia and other evaluation settings who face complexity challenges in their current work.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will :

• Appreciate the problems of complex evaluation
• Acknowledge the problem of complex causality for contribution claims
• Understand how and when Process Tracing can be used
• Work through a Process Tracing Case Study

A practical foundation course for those with little previous experience.

Course Summary
Most current evaluation work includes the development of, or reflection on, a theory of change. Theories of change are useful for reflection and learning about the effectiveness of the work and a valuable tool in the evaluator’s toolbox. How these theories of change are constructed, communicated, or visualised varies greatly.

This two half-day online-only course covers the various ways that ToCs are being applied in practice, with their strengths and weaknesses. You will learn to balance detail and generalisation, how to keep it sharp and simple enough to focus on what matters most, and always with your target audience in mind.

Audience
The training is appropriate for evaluation commissioners, those new to evaluation, and those who manage evaluators. The training is suitable for people with more evaluation experience who want to refresh their understanding of Theory of Change.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn how to:

• recognise theories of change (ToCs) and how they are broadly used within intervention design, implementation and evaluation
• identify the key components of a ToC development process
• use ToC process for different purposes and involving different audiences
• critically review existing theories of change and provide constructive feedback

Trainers
The trainers for any given instance of a training course may vary depending on scheduling. Your trainers for this course will be one or more of the following individuals. Specific trainers will be indicated on the booking portal details for a specific instance of a training course.

Giel Ton
Giel is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and the Centre for Development Impact He specialises in the design of mixed-methods impact evaluations in private-sector development programmes. He promotes contribution analysis as an overarching approach of theory-based evaluation and a stepwise process to identify the hotspots where additional data collection and reflection are needed. He has a special interest in the effectiveness of programmes that aim to improve governance and coordination in agricultural value chains and empower smallholder farmers in collective action. He has published about the methodological challenges of impact evaluation of development interventions in the journal Evaluation and the IDS Bulletin. He has advanced skills in both qualitative and econometric research.

Drew Koleros
Drew is a Senior Researcher at Mathematica in the United States, with expertise in designing and delivering mixed-methods evaluations and programme monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems. He brings particular expertise in using theory-based approaches that integrate complexity concepts and systems thinking into programme and evaluation design processes. Drew has also supported multiple teams in designing strategy-level theories of change to inform their monitoring, evaluation, and learning initiatives. He has published on his work in designing theory-based evaluation approaches in the American Journal of Evaluation, the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, and in multiple practitioner settings.

Course summary

There has been an increased uptake in storytelling approaches in evaluation, such as most significant change and outcomes harvesting, to be more culturally responsive, inclusive, and to bring epistemic pluralism to evaluation. But despite best intentions, current practice is non-relational, non-aligned with social and/or cultural realities, not trauma-informed and continues to unintentionally sustain the status quo and promote colonial narratives (to name some issues). A lot of these issues start with our systems, from the notion of what a valuable story is, and negatively impact how we engage with people; how we collect, manage and edit stories; and how we repackage and report them.

Join this course to discover how to use storytelling in ways that are truly relational, culturally-anchored and trauma-informed to shift power, change mindsets, honour diverse voices and lived experiences, and produce evidence that is more relevant, credible, inclusive and impactful. 

Who is the course for?

• For those interested in using storytelling, such as most significant change and outcomes harvesting, in ways that avoid harming and reduce the effectiveness of evaluation findings.
• For those who have been using storytelling approaches and want to make sure they are doing so in ways that avoid harming and reduce the effectiveness of evaluation findings.

What will you learn?

To improve evaluation evidence via the use of transformative and more EDI storytelling approaches. This includes:

• Understanding the limitations of dominating structures, mindsets and approaches and how they negatively impact the use of storytelling in evaluation and its findings.
• Reimaging storytelling approaches in evaluation to increase their credibility and potential for positive impact, particularly for historically discriminated and marginalised groups across a range of intersectional dimensions.
• Recognising and valuing nondominant forms of knowledge and lived experiences.
• Using trauma-informed, culturally sensitive and healing approaches in storytelling for evaluation. 

Who will teach the course?

Yulye Jessica Romo Ramos, Director & Principal Consultant at Nexus Evaluation

With an MSc and 15 years of experience in diverse thematic areas globally, Jessica is recognized for her equitable, diverse, and inclusive approaches. She integrates these principles with systems thinking and innovative methods to formulate strategies and to evaluate and learn from social innovations, large investments, and development programs.

Jessica is a seasoned trainer and facilitator. Over the last 10 years, she has delivered a range of online and in-person trainings, including systems change for governance and EDI for the City Bridge Foundation and London Youth members; Impact and Learning for the Health Foundation, Outcomes Harvesting for GiZ and The Wellcome Trust – to name some.

Access Details

The majority of our courses are presented online via Zoom. Access details will be provided after the booking window closes, usually the business day before the training commences.

If you have any alternative support needs in order to effectively participate in this training, please let us know before booking or as soon as possible after booking by emailing our team on hello@evaluation.org.uk 

Fees

Fees may vary on specific instances of a course, actual fees are noted on the booking site. 
As a registered charity, our training is exempt from VAT.

Refunds/Cancellations

Refunds will only be provided for participant cancellations received at least 14 days prior to the event. The UK Evaluation Society reserves the right to cancel the event, in which case a full refund would be provided.