Stop Conflict. Save lives.
EVALUATING PEACEBUILDING
Peace Direct is very careful about how it chooses its partners and confident that they are amongst the best peace builders working in a conflict. We are diligent in ensuring the projects that they implement are well planned and managed. An important part of this planning is to look at how we are going to monitor and evaluate the projects, not just because we want to keep track of how the projects are progressing and the impact that they have, but to learn lessons for the future and share best practices.
As much as possible, we design our monitoring and evaluation, not just as a measure of progress but as a continuous learning and information process throughout the project cycle. This is a challenging aspect of any project but it is especially challenging for peace building due to the complexity of conflicts and the speed with which they can change. Currently we are working to develop our own simplified ‘Monitoring & Evaluation’ guidelines to be used by our partners, designed to support our partners by strengthening their projects rather than burdening them with superfluous reports. When complete, these guidelines will be available on this website and will be based around the following project processes:
Step 1: Analysis
The first step of any peace project is a conflict analysis which identifies the causes of a conflict. If one is not available we work with our partners to conduct our own. This is a useful exercise to think about the conflict at large and where the project fits into this. It is also a useful record with which to compare changes in the conflict over time and map any patterns. The analyses will normally be localised rather than national or regional as conflicts can vary significantly over a short geographical or political area. The Sri Lanka map below demonstrates why local peacebuilders are so important as conflicts that have been going on for many years will invariably have created multi-faceted instabilities that can be very localised, requiring a local response.
Step 2: Impact
Having analysed the conflict and identified the causes, we now look at which causes our project impacts upon and how. This is a good starting point for looking at whether the project can be adjusted to include other causes and to think carefully about whether the project really can have a positive impact on the conflict. It also begins the process of looking logically at why we think a project might work and identify strengths and weaknesses in that logic. Which drivers of conflict will our project affect? How will it affect them? Why will it affect them?
Step 3: Monitor
Throughout the projects, we monitor the progress of the activities and where possible look at the evaluation indicators throughout the project. This allows us to monitor if the project activities are being implemented as planned but to also look at whether our theories of change are progressing as expected. For example, an indicator in Sudan is to canvass opinion of workshop participants to evaluate how effective they have been. If they have not been effective and there is no or little change in attitude then we need to think how we might address this, either within the current project or in future projects. We also realise that in a conflict our partners are flat out working as issues inevitably arise that they have to deal with. This can mean they do not have time to reflect on their work so we appoint a ‘critical friend’ to each partner who, with an outside persepective, can help the organisation recognise its strengths and weaknesses. The critical friend is also a good person to channel information to us to keep us updated. This alleviates some of the reporting burden from our partners and allows them to spend more of their time doing what they do best.
Step 4: Evaluate
Following the completion of the project, a further evaluation will be conducted. This will contribute to a written report that will document the lessons learned from the project (what did and what did not work) and a final evaluation of the project’s impacts. The timing of this evaluation is important and often requires a return to a project many months and years after it has completed. As Peace Direct is committed to its partners and a conflict for as long as is required, it is usually well placed to return to activities long after they have been completed.
EVALUATION DOCUMENTS
