Dissemination and Use of Results from OVC Programs

Dissemination and Use of Results from OVC Program Evaluations Florence Nyangara, PhD MEASURE Evaluation/Futures Group Dissemination Meeting, September 3 rd , 2009 Washington, DC

Primary Objective of OVC Program Evaluations
Provide evidence to guide program decisions such as;
Scaling-up of best practices (models, strategies), and
Modify & improve interventions - to make them effective
Therefore, needed to collect quality and relevant data, analyze, and use results to guide OVC programs
M onitoring and E valuation to A ssess and U se R esults (MEAS U RE) 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 Strategy
Stakeholder 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 1 st 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 evaluated 1 .
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 Bulletin
Contains:
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 Carolina Population 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.

Dissemination and Use of Results from OVC Programs

by MEASURE Evaluation on Oct 13, 2009

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Dissemination and Use of Results from OVC Programs — Presentation Transcript