scholarly journals Finding common ground: A participatory approach to evaluation

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Sutherland ◽  
Barbara Klugman
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Base Line ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Background: This article describes the efforts of a group of donors and activists to collectively develop a national base line on organisations working for human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in Kenya to develop an ongoing monitoring and evaluation process.Objectives: The purpose of the base line was to support both activist strategising and ongoing reflection, and more effective donor collaboration and grant making.Method: Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders, the authors examined the dominant approach to funding and evaluation on social change globally. They analysed the impact of this dominant approach on developing and sustaining a SOGI movement in Kenya. They developed an alternative theory of change and participatory methodology and worked with a range of donors and SOGI organisations to conceptualise and support the collaborative collection of information on four themes: legislation and policy, organisational mapping, political and cultural context, and lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.Results: This was a useful process and tool for activists and donors to develop a shared understanding of the current context and capacities influencing efforts to promote SOGI rights. It served as a basis for improved strategising and participants expected it to prove useful for monitoring progress in the longer term.Conclusion: This theory of change and participatory approach to base line development could be helpful to donors, activists and monitoring and evaluation specialists concerned with supporting social change in the region and globally.

Participatory Poverty Assessment Effort in Food Security and Extension Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 481-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhamad Rusliyadi ◽  
Azaharaini Bin Hj. Mohd. Jamil
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Program Implementation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
Poverty Assessment ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
The Impact

The impact study assessment aims to evaluate policies and monitor the achievement of targets and the results of a development program such as DMP. The output obtained is information that is an evaluation of how the policy was planned, initiated, and implemented. Participatory monitoring and evaluation analyze the outcome and impact of the DMP Program. PPA seeks to answer the question of whether or not the policy or program is working properly. A participatory approach may improve the outcomes in the form of a new policy model for the future. The output of the PPA process from this study is the agricultural policy formulated in terms of practical ways of approaching poverty problems from a local perspective. The success of alternative policy options applied by local government such as physical, human resources, and institution development at the grassroots level should be adopted at the national level. It should represent the best example of a case of successful program implementation at the grassroots level which can then be used in formulating national policies and strategies.

scholarly journals Evaluating impacts of training in conservation: a case study in Mauritius

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany Sawrey ◽  
Jamie Copsey ◽  
E. J. Milner-Gulland
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Practical Skills ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Perception Of Control ◽  
Training Activities ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe need for increased monitoring and evaluation within the conservation sector has been well documented, and includes the monitoring and evaluation of training activities. We evaluated the impacts of a long-term training programme in Mauritius, using a questionnaire and semi-structured key informant interviews to develop a theory of change from the perspective of the trainers, and validated it against participants' perceptions of the benefits of training. Our findings indicated that an important outcome of training was to increase participants' belief that they could effect change, also called perception of control; this is related to an increase in a trainee's practical skills, which enables them to become more effective in their work. However, if a trainee's work environment was negative, the impact of training on practical skills, job performance and perception of control was lower. Neither the acquisition of conservation theory nor the opportunity to network was perceived by participants as improving their conservation performance, despite trainers anticipating that these matters would be important. Perception of control and work environment should therefore be considered when designing conservation training programmes, and the effectiveness of teaching conservation theory and networking should be examined further.

THEORIES OF CHANGE IN THE PROCESS OF RURAL TRANSFORMATION: A REFINED WAY FORWARD

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 279-297
Author(s):  
V. Rengarajan ◽  
K. Sivasubramaniyan
Keyword(s):  
Process Monitoring ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Refined Theory ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
The Impact

Theory of change has been a useful evaluation tool for social science research. The interest in its use has been notable in recent years amongst international aid organisations and public authorities who make huge investment in social oriented intervention with more focus on the challenges related to gender empowerment and poverty cure in rural area. Logically, the achievement of intended change (impact) matters. In this context, the emerging question is: 'How are we getting a candid profile of change after the project implementation? The sources of data for analysis are taken from evaluation reports of Programme Evaluation Organisation, Planning Commission, Government of India.   Among the convolutions, found in the theory of change the important one is that the monitoring system does not extend beyond output level in the causal path revealing only impaired impact confining to the physical achievement vs target. This apart, there is no process monitoring of implementation and mid-course corrections. The paper suggests a slew of critical constituents for the refined theory of change which include: (a) process monitoring; (b) result based monitoring and evaluation (c) transparent outcome and the impact; and (d) human behaviour.

Gender at the interface of culture and language: Conceptual variation between Italian, Dutch, and English

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Mazzuca ◽  
Anna M. Borghi ◽  
saskia va putten ◽  
Luisa Lugli ◽  
Roberto Nicoletti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Social Treatment ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conceptual Variation ◽  
Culture And Language

Gender can be considered an embodied social concept, encompassing physical, biological, and concrete aspects, as well as cultural, linguistic, and abstract dimensions. In this study we explored whether the conceptual structure of gender—as expressed in participants’ free-listing responses and ratings—varies as a function of different cultural and linguistic norms and gender-related experiences. Specifically, we compared Italian, Dutch, and English speaking participants, three communities that vary in their social treatment of gender-related issues and in how they linguistically encode gender. Additionally, we assessed the impact of differential gender-experiences by comparing participants that varied by gender-normativity in each sample. Within each community there were considerable individual differences in the representation of gender with heterogeneous associations ranging from more strictly physical and concrete ones (e.g., male, female) to more social and abstract (e.g., feminism, performativity). Nevertheless, we also found stable cross-cultural differences in the concept of gender. For example, Italian participants mainly focused on abstract, social, and cultural features (e.g., discrimination, politics, power), whereas Dutch participants produced more concrete features related to the corporeal sphere (e.g., hormones, breasts, genitals). Our results show that gender is a composite and flexible concept that can be represented in more abstract or concrete terms depending on cultural context. Importantly, this suggests that in the conceptual representation of gender both aspects are relevant, but that culture differentially shapes the concept of gender making some aspects more salient than others.

Executives Perception of the Impact of Flexitime on Organizational Performance

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Osibanjo Adewale Omotayo ◽  
Abolaji Joachim Abiodun ◽  
Akinrole Olumuyiwa Fadugba
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Flexible Work ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
Significant Negative Impact ◽  
Main Medium ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

The paper investigates the perception of Nigerian executives on the impact of flexitime on organizational performance. Effort is made to explore the attitudinal disposition of employees towards flexitime and how gender affects employee satisfaction with flexitime. The study, based on administered questionnaires as the main medium for data collection from managers in private sector of the Nigerian economy, utilizes correlations and multi-variate regression analysis to determine variables that significantly contribute to manager’s satisfaction with flexible work arrangement. The study finds that marital status and gender exert significant negative impact on level of satisfaction with flexitime. In addition, gender, marital status and motivation capabilities of flexitime were found to be a significant determinant of satisfaction with flexitime. Therefore, given the cultural context of the study it does appear that organizations might found it profitable to adopt a flexitime policy so as to relieve their employees some family or domestic burden with the attendant motivation benefit that increases employee performances.

scholarly journals The Cultural Context of Youth Suicide in Australia: Unemployment, Identity and Gender

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Gilchrist ◽  
Glennys Howarth ◽  
Gerard Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Youth Suicide ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Economic Exclusion ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

This article considers the impact, in terms of life and death choices, of the economic exclusion of young people in Australia, where suicide is the leading cause of death by injury. In the two decades from 1980 there was a dramatic increase in suicide rates for young males. Research demonstrates a correlation between youth suicide and unemployment but the complex relationship between the two has not been fully investigated. This article explores the perceptions of young people, parents and service providers of the cultural context of suicide and how it comes to be constructed as an option for young people experiencing economic marginalisation.

scholarly journals Model disability survey: a pilot study in the North Batinah governorate

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
The North ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Impact

Objective: The continuous shift to non-communicable diseases in Oman require a more consistent inclusion of functioning and disability information in health monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Oman currently relies on the census to generate data on disability which is usually very limited in scope, and provides only rough prevalence estimates of persons with specific impairments. The lack of accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date information on disability is a major obstacle for planning services and allocating resources. Thus, there was a need to conduct a comprehensive population-based survey to fill this information gap. The pilot aimed to examine the feasibility of the Arabic version of the Model Disability Survey (MDS) in the cultural context of Oman, identify potential problems with the survey, and develop strategies to deal with them before a large national implementation is launched.Methods: The MDS is the tool recommended by the World Health Organization(WHO) to collect comprehensive data about functioning and disability to quantify both the impact of health conditions or impairments as well as the impact of the environment on disability. To determine the applicability of measuring disability, a pilot study was carried out in the North Batinah governorate of Oman with a convenience sample of 288 adults aged 18 year or older in collaboration with WHO. Results: The overall disability prevalence was estimated to be 14.6% (n=42) in the MDS pilot study calculated by determining the proportion of people in the population who experience severe performance problems. The overall results corroborated that the Arabic translation of the MDS survey tool works well in the field and is suitable for a large scale implementation, after minor revisions. Conclusion: Since the results of this pilot study in Oman show that the disability measurement survey tool has been successfully tested, we recommend that the MDS be extended and implemented nationally. It should also be integrated to existing routine household surveys to allow continuous monitoring of disability in countries.

scholarly journals Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Age, Race, and Gender

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 512-512
Author(s):  
Nicky Newton ◽  
Jennifer Lodi-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In the early months of COVID-19, behavioral modifications (i.e., social distancing) were the only means available to ameliorate contagion. These had widespread ramifications for well-being, although older adults showed relatively less disruption and high resilience than their younger counterparts (Carney et al., 2021). Early findings highlight the need for a life course perspective when examining reactions to COVID-19, based on social structure, personal agency, and individual differences such as age, gender, and personality (Settersten et al., 2020). The presentations in this symposium contribute to a developing body of research that delves deeper into individual lived experiences during COVID-19. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, Ryan examines cohort and age differences in pandemic-related social contact, communication, loneliness, and well-being for women in the US, revealing that the impact of pandemic-attributed psychosocial experiences on well-being differed by age group. Newton et al. examine associations between perceptions of future time, COVID-19 disruption, and psychological well-being among older Canadian women, finding that COVID-19 disruption moderated the relationship between constrained time horizons and well-being. Birditt and colleagues assessed racial disparities in relationships between COVID-related stress, social isolation, and depression among adults aged 18-97 from the Survey of Consumers, and found ethnic/racial minorities reported greater pandemic-related stress and that stress and social isolation had detrimental effects on well-being. A discussion by Lodi-Smith will emphasize the necessity to include individual differences – age, race, gender, cohort, cultural context –when examining pandemic-related well-being in order to provide a more nuanced body of research.

scholarly journals A World Full of Stereotypes? Further Investigation on Origin and Gender Bias in Multi-Lingual Word Embeddings

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mascha Kurpicz-Briki ◽  
Tomaso Leoni
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Word Embeddings ◽  
German Word ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Publicly available off-the-shelf word embeddings that are often used in productive applications for natural language processing have been proven to be biased. We have previously shown that this bias can come in different forms, depending on the language and the cultural context. In this work, we extend our previous work and further investigate how bias varies in different languages. We examine Italian and Swedish word embeddings for gender and origin bias, and demonstrate how an origin bias concerning local migration groups in Switzerland is included in German word embeddings. We propose BiasWords, a method to automatically detect new forms of bias. Finally, we discuss how cultural and language aspects are relevant to the impact of bias on the application and to potential mitigation measures.

Self-Compassion and Quality of Life in Adults Who Stutter

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Croft ◽  
Courtney T. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Adults Who Stutter ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify levels of self-compassion in adults who do and do not stutter and to determine whether self-compassion predicts the impact of stuttering on quality of life in adults who stutter. Method Participants included 140 adults who do and do not stutter matched for age and gender. All participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale. Adults who stutter also completed the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Data were analyzed for self-compassion differences between and within adults who do and do not stutter and to predict self-compassion on quality of life in adults who stutter. Results Adults who do and do not stutter exhibited no significant differences in total self-compassion, regardless of participant gender. A simple linear regression of the total self-compassion score and total Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering score showed a significant, negative linear relationship of self-compassion predicting the impact of stuttering on quality of life. Conclusions Data suggest that higher levels of self-kindness, mindfulness, and social connectedness (i.e., self-compassion) are related to reduced negative reactions to stuttering, an increased participation in daily communication situations, and an improved overall quality of life. Future research should replicate current findings and identify moderators of the self-compassion–quality of life relationship.

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