We have extensive work overseas, having completed contracts in 8 countries other than the UK and Europe. We present here a few examples of the kind of work we do, be it on behalf of large, international organisations, or for overseas government departments.
Christian Aid
Christian Aid have had a wide variety of evaluations carried out on the projects that they support. These have been carried out using a wide variety of methods and approaches depending on the funders, the project staff, the recipient organisation and the location. Christian Aid were keen to learn more about their use of evaluations: what evaluations had been used for, what had worked, what had not, what type of information was being missed, what methods were most appropriate, what their staff's perception of evaluations was, and more.
This led to the decision to carry out a meta-evaluation (an evaluation of the evaluations!). Irene was contracted to draw out lessons about the function and success and quality of evaluation exercises. Irene then carried out a detailed desk review of approximately 60 evaluation reports, designing a matrix structure to be able to compare the very different evaluation exercises according to the elements identified as significant by Christian Aid, such as sustainability, gender equity, impact and organisational capacity.
Interviews with staff at all levels aimed to identify information missing from the written reports, or that could not be picked up from reports. Irene .s report identified important learning points for the organisation, that were then used in a wider organisational review of evaluation. She also led a workshop for Christian Aid staff that enabled them to put the evaluation process and report into context, to identify their own areas of concern or aspects they thought were positive, as well as to contribute to the on-going development of evaluation within Christian Aid.
