Download or read book Enhancing Evaluation Use written by Marlène Läubli Loud and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is valuable to those involved in the evaluation of public organisations. Particularly insightful is the realization that similar challenges faced in various organizations are addressed with very different solutions.

Download or read book Enhancing Evaluation Use written by Marlène Läubli Loud and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2013-04-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enhancing Evaluation Use: Insights from Internal Evaluation Units offers invaluable insights from real evaluators who share strategies they have adopted through their own experiences in evaluation. Readers will learn about the challenges, solutions, and lessons drawn from the experience of evaluators working in a wide range of organizations. Referencing the latest literature, contributors discuss factors that help or undermine attempts to foster an evaluative thinking and learning culture within an organization. Applicable in a wide range of situations, their accounts demonstrate the initiative and innovative thinking they use to address challenges in various, sometimes complex, evaluation settings. Questions at the end of each chapter stimulate thought and discussions about the issues raised and allow readers to apply their findings to their own situations. "This book speaks to a cutting-edge topic, that is, the potential to generalize program evaluation expertise to larger organizational questions, and the cases from multiple international contexts represent a unique feature." —John Clayton Thomas, Georgia State University "The use of actual cases to highlight major concepts in evaluation in the public sector is a great feature." —Danica G. Hays, Old Dominion University "The text provides practical information from a variety of organizational contexts and the integration of international experiences provides for expanded discussion of evaluation theory and practice." —Kathleen Norris, Plymouth State University "The key strengths of this book lie in its national, supra-national and international organizational contexts, its consistency in insider perspectives, and the detailed examples provided." —Donna Haig Friedman, University of Massachusetts, Boston "The book of essays reviewed here was edited by two eminent evaluators. It fills an important gap in the literature: in pursuit of improved quality of evaluation products, evaluation thinkers have lavished attention on evaluation methods, ethics and use but they have sorely neglected evaluation governance issues and have largely failed to probe the workings of evaluation within organizations. Yet, most evaluations are commissioned by (or undertaken within) organizations. The choices organizations make in structuring evaluation functions and designing evaluation processes have a major bearing on the relevance, validity and usefulness of evaluations. Refreshingly, the book offers fresh mental models and practical lessons about evaluation systems and practices adopted in diverse organizational settings. All contributors to the book are seasoned practitioners. They hail from national, supranational and international organizations and many of them have trespassed across these thematic and organizational boundaries. They all are equipped to draw on a vast reservoir of hands---on experience as evaluation commissioners, managers, internal evaluators or external practitioners. Remarkably, they also display considerable familiarity with relevant themes treated by the organization management and evaluation literature. Given its pragmatic focus the book is bound to elicit broad based interest among evaluation practitioners. While it addresses familiar dilemmas and challenges (evaluation independence, evaluation utilization, organizational learning, nurturing of an evaluation culture, etc.) it does so from the distinctive perspective of "insiders" who have had to contend with a variety of organizational constraints and management pressures. Revealingly most contributors find good reasons to be optimistic about the possibility of positive change. The stage is set by John Mayne whose introductory and authoritative chapter identifies the critical importance of organizational factors in the utilization of evaluation results. This is followed by Bastiaan de Laat’s chapter which puts forward an ingenious analytical construct: the "tricky triangle" of relationships that links commissioners, evaluators and evaluands. Specifically De Laat unmasks and assesses the different and complex configurations that result from this triangular interplay. Penny Hawkins’ elegant contribution underlines the importance of evaluation independence. It highlights the considerable impact that the electoral cycle may have on evaluation approaches. It also reveals that indigenous cultures may present formidable obstacles to the very notion of external evaluative oversight. The next chapter penned by Marlene Laubli’s is equally perceptive in tracing the creative adaptation that the evaluation function underwent in response to changes in the organizational force field of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health’s Evaluation Unit. In a similar vein Erica Wimbush provides a lucid exposition of the strategies used to bridge evaluative knowledge and management action in Scotland’s public health agency. Still within the health field, Nancy Porteous and Steve Montague show convincingly that transformative organizational change in Canada’s Public Health Agency was facilitated through judicious evaluation programming and what has come to be called "double loop learning". Finally, Bastiaan de Laat and Kevin Williams summarize important findings from of two empirical studies of evaluation use in the European Commission that go a long way in identifying good practices for evaluation commissioning in a supra--- national organizational context. The next two chapters of the book focus on two specialized agencies of the United Nations. They tread gently in what is admittedly a highly sensitive and contested terrain. Maria J. Santamaria Hergueta, Alan Schnur and Deepak Thapa discuss how the World Health Organization’s evaluation function evolved towards greater independence over several decades while Janet Neubecker, Matthew Ripley and Craig Russon focus on the innovative techniques used within the International Labour Organization to enhance utilization of self evaluation findings. The final chapter by Marlene Laubli Loud misses the opportunity to compensate for the "good news" bias that understandably characterizes the previous contributions. Surprisingly, it displays ambivalence towards evaluation independence which it equates with externality, a concept soundly rejected by de Laat. But setting this dimension aside, the chapter is interesting and valuable since it reflects the co---editor’ vast experience as an evaluator, evaluation trainer and evaluation manager in diverse national and international contexts. Thus the chapter provides a useful compilation of "take away" messages focused on good evaluation management practices. It is on solid grounds when it describes how to make effective use of advisory committees, motivate potential evaluation users, design good terms of reference, select the right evaluators, craft judicious evaluation policies and keep an eye out for political "windows of opportunity". Each chapter of the book concludes with a crisp exposition of overarching findings, discussion topics and references. Thus the volume should be of practical value to teachers, students, professional evaluators as well as evaluation commissioners and programme managers. All in all, this is a book that belongs on your shelf if you are intent on enhancing the role that evaluation plays in your organization." —Robert Picciotto, UKES Council Member

Download or read book Impact Evaluation in Practice Second Edition written by Paul J. Gertler and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.

Download or read book Ten Steps to a Results based Monitoring and Evaluation System written by Jody Zall Kusek and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004-06-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, international organizations and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a OC Readiness AssessmentOCO and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The Handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way."

Download or read book La Transition de L conomie Informelle Vers L conomie Formelle written by International Labour Conference and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report of the External Evaluation of the Independent Evaluation Office written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2006-03-29 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The IEO of the IMF was created in 2000 to enhance the learning culture of the IMF, to build the IMF’s external credibility by undertaking objective evaluations in a transparent manner, to provide independent feedback to the Executive Board in its governance and oversight responsibilities, and to promote greater understanding of the work of the IMF among its members and the broader public. In the period October 2005-February 2006, the Evaluation Panel assessed how well the IEO meets these objectives, asking at the outset whether the IMF needs an IEO and whether the existing office is adequately independent. The Panel concludes that the IEO has served the IMF well but identifies certain weaknesses and makes recommendations to the IEO and the IMF to address them.

Download or read book The Road to Results written by Linda G. Morra-Imas and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009 with total page 611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Road to Results: Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations' presents concepts and procedures for evaluation in a development context. It provides procedures and examples on how to set up a monitoring and evaluation system, how to conduct participatory evaluations and do social mapping, and how to construct a "rigorous" quasi-experimental design to answer an impact question. The text begins with the context of development evaluation and how it arrived where it is today. It then discusses current issues driving development evaluation, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the move from simple project evaluations to the broader understandings of complex evaluations. The topics of implementing 'Results-based Measurement and Evaluation' and constructing a 'Theory of Change' are emphasized throughout the text. Next, the authors take the reader down 'the road to results, ' presenting procedures for evaluating projects, programs, and policies by using a 'Design Matrix' to help map the process. This road includes: determining the overall approach, formulating questions, selecting designs, developing data collection instruments, choosing a sampling strategy, and planning data analysis for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations. The book also includes discussions on conducting complex evaluations, how to manage evaluations, how to present results, and ethical behavior--including principles, standards, and guidelines. The final chapter discusses the future of development evaluation. This comprehensive text is an essential tool for those involved in development evaluation.

Download or read book International Organization in Time written by Tine Hanrieder and published by Oxford University Press (UK). This book was released on 2015 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International Organization in Time investigates the effects of reform programs on international organizations (IOs). Drawing on insights from historical institutionalism and sociological organization theory, the book develops a theory of IO fragmentation to account for the centrifugal tendencies of the global polity. Focusing on the reform problems in the United Nations system in general and the World Health Organization in particular, the findings of International Organization in Time not only advance scholarly understanding of institutional development beyond the state, but also raise important questions about the legitimacy of international organizations.

Download or read book A Century of Service written by Mark Loughrey and published by Merrion Press. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 1919, 20 nurses and midwives meeting in Dublin to discuss their poor working conditions took a historic decision to establish a trade union - the first of its kind in the world. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) now numbers 40,000 and is Ireland's largest nurse and midwife representative association. This book examines the heady social and economic backdrop that gave birth to the INMO, putting names and faces to the founders and delving into the challenges they encountered. It details the Organisation's conservative middle years and its recent emergence as one of the most vocal protagonists for nurses, midwives and patients in Ireland, while also exploring the vast and varied service that the Organisation provides to its members. The prospect of a nurses' or midwives' strike always raises concerns for patient welfare, and the book looks closely at how the INMO has negotiated this tension, most especially during the 1999 national nurses' strike - one of the largest strikes in Irish history. A Century of Service is brought to life by a fascinating series of in-depth interviews with the INMO's members and leaders in a story of an organisation that with talent, tact and tenacity is delivering despite the odds.

Download or read book From the Global to the Local written by Andrea Schapper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Global to the Local develops a unique perspective on human rights governance in developing countries, where the state often lacks the required resources, capacities and expertise for implementing rights. Considering how rights that have been agreed upon in the global arena of world politics are locally implemented, this book then specifically explores how they reach the local children of Bangladesh’s urban slums and poor rural areas. Andrea Schapper combines an analytical framework grounded in international relations scholarship on global governance with empirical field research methods that have their basis in sociology and anthropology. Utilising this methodology, the book examines three principles that represent a global consensus on children’s rights (the protection of children from the worst forms of child labor, providing them with primary education, and delivering basic health care services to them) to illuminating the need for local and contextual solutions to transnational issues. Exploring such concerns with vigor, this book fills a gap in the study of human rights implementation and protection and will thus be of immense interest to students of Law, of International Relations and of Development Studies.

Download or read book International Standard Classification of Occupations written by International Labour Office and published by International Labor Office. This book was released on 2012 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO-08) is a four-level hierarchically structured classification that covers all jobs in the world. Developed with the benefit of accumulated national and international experience as well as the help of experts from many countries and agencies, ISCO-08 is fully supported by the international community as an accepted standard for international labour statistics. ISCO-08 classifies jobs into 436 unit groups. These unit groups are aggregated into 130 minor groups, 43 sub-major groups and 10 major groups, based on their similarity in terms of the skill level and skill specialisation required for the jobs. This allows the production of relatively detailed internationally comparable data as well as summary information for only 10 groups at the highest level of aggregation. Each group in the classification is designated by a title and code number and is associated with a definition that specifies the scope of the group. The classification is divided into two volumes: Volume I presents the structure and definitions of all groups in ISCO-08 and their correspondence with ISCO-88, which it supersedes, while Volume II provides an updated and expanded index of occupational titles and associated ISCO-08 and ISCO-88 codes.

Download or read book Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-07-29 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

Download or read book Strategic Treaty Management written by Thomas F. McInerney and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-30 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While little recognized in international law scholarship, multilateral treaties in diverse fields have begun to apply strategic management techniques to make them more effective and responsive. This examination of those practices and their interplay with associated international organizations considers the application of strategic management across treaties' planning, financing, implementation, and evaluation activities. The study leads to a new appreciation of the intricacies of multilateral treaty activities and a better understanding of their operations within complex webs of networked international institutions. In considering different approaches to steering treaties through this dispersed global governance landscape, Thomas F. McInerney draws on current strategic management literature to explore the utility of nonlinear, emergent models of strategy and gain insights from strategy as practice research. While recognizing strategic management's potential value in facilitating more flexible applications of multilateral agreements, he also emphasizes the need to maintain their normativity as international legal obligations.

Download or read book Need for U S Objectives in the International Labor Organization Departments of State Labor and Commerce written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Recording and Notification of Occupational Accidents and Diseases written by International Labour Office and published by International Labour Organization. This book was released on 1996 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Fair Globalization written by World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization and published by International Labour Organization. This book was released on 2004 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report has been compiled by the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization, an independent body established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2002, and whose membership includes international politicians and government advisers from developed and developing countries, academics and representatives of business and multinational corporations, trade unions and civil society organisations. The report explores the social dimensions of globalisation and the need to build a fair and inclusive global economic system, and argues that the dominant perspective on globalisation must shift from a narrow focus on markets to encompass a broader recognition of the needs of people in the communities in which they live. Issues highlighted and recommendations made in the report include: better governance and accountability at both national and international levels to foster productive and equitable markets; empowerment of local communities, including gender equality; sustainable development based on the interdependent pillars of economic, social and environmental development; fairer rules for international trade, investment and finance; measures to overcome inequality and raise capacity to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and a stronger multilateral framework based on an effective United Nations.

Download or read book Model Rules of Professional Conduct written by American Bar Association. House of Delegates and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2007 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.