Tuesday, January 31, 2012

[EQ] Making evaluations matter: A practical guide for evaluators

Making evaluations matter: A practical guide for evaluators.


Kusters, C.S.L. et al. 2011

Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University & Research centre, The Netherlands

Available online PDF [120p.] at: http://bit.ly/zt3quw

 

“……Evaluations do matter, they can contribute to the general understanding of complex environments in which many of our development initiatives take place and help us to be innovative in the way we adapt our programmes to address the needs of intended primary users and to improve the welfare of primary stakeholders…..”

 

“……….The guide draws heavily on Michael Quinn Patton’s Utilization- Focused Evaluation approach (2008). The importance of good evaluative practice and the need to embed evaluations into existing learning processes within organisations are emphasised.

Chapter 1 presents four core principles underpinning evaluations that matter. These are:
- utilization -focused and influence- and consequence aware; focusing on stakes,
- stakeholder engagement and learning;
 situational responsiveness; and
- multiple evaluator and evaluation roles.

Chapter 2 gives an overview of suggested steps for designing and facilitating evaluations that matter, with a particular focus on utilization and being aware of the possible influences and consequences of evaluations.

It stresses the importance of including primary intended users and other key stakeholders in the evaluation so as to enhance understanding of the development intervention. The key steps of the evaluation process – establishing ability and readiness; focusing; implementing and evaluating the evaluation – are covered. In

Chapter 3, the role of stakeholders is highlighted in terms of their stakes, participation, consequences of choosing who to involve and who not to involve in the process.

The need to balance content and people processes is also discussed. Core concepts and ideas centred on making evaluations learning experiences are presented in Chapter 4. Barriers to learning and ways of enhancing learning among stakeholders are also explored.

Chapter 5 brings the possible influences of evaluation on change processes to the surface and explains how you can go about managing change.
Central to this is Kotter’s (2002) suggested steps to facilitate change. You will find in the Annexes an example of learning purposes, evaluation questions, uses and users of an evaluation for a food security programme, a table comparing traditional programme evaluation with developmental evaluation (Patton, 2011), as well as a list…”

 

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[EQ] Deadly Sins and Living Virtues of Public Health

Deadly Sins and Living Virtues  of Public Health

Harvey V. Fineberg*
Jennifer Cohen, Patricia Cuff, Rick Erdtmann, Patrick Kelley, Janice Mehler, Livia Navon, Laura Pillsbury, Stephanie Pincus, Sheri Sable, Patti Simon, Isabelle Von Kohorn, and Sarah Ziegenhorn

January 2012 *President and staff of the US IOM Institute of medicine


Available online at: http://bit.ly/wtFg1M

“………At a recent meeting for Institute of Medicine (IOM) staff, I delivered a version of my 2011 Frank A. Calderone Prize Lecture, which included reference to the seven deadly sins. As originally enunciated by Pope Gregory I in 590 A.D., the deadly sins are lust, sloth, gluttony, greed, wrath, envy, and pride. I used these as a foil to suggest there are also seven deadly sins of public health. Retaining three of the original sins (sloth, greed, and gluttony), I added four more: ignorance, complacency, timidity, and obstinacy.

Sloth blocks us from doing the daily activity that would help keep us healthy. Gluttony cajoles us to eat even if we are no longer hungry and has, along with sloth, produced an obesity epidemic. Greed drives companies to continue to market and profit from items that are bad for health, such as cigarettes.

To these I added three sins of omission—ignorance, sometimes willful, colors judgment and leads to poor health decisions by both individuals and policy makers; complacency is responsible for the acceptance as “normal” of health hazards that are, in fact, preventable or avoidable; and timidity prevents individuals from demanding health-enhancing changes to policy and practice and inhibits policy makers from doing the right thing.

For the seventh deadly sin, I suggested obstinacy—the refusal to accept evidence on best practices and the refusal to change practices or customs that are familiar. I then invited staff to propose additional candidates for a deadly sin of public health and submit them to Clyde Behney, deputy executive officer of the IOM. Clyde then compiled the results, and we thought it would be worthwhile to make them more widely available through a discussion paper…..” Harvey V. Fineberg

 

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[EQ] Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action

Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action

Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (BPH)

US Institute of Medicine (IOM) January 31st, 2012

Available online at: http://bit.ly/xQAQqv



“…………..In the United States, chronic diseases currently account for 70 percent of all deaths, and close to 48 million Americans report a disability related to a chronic condition. Today, about one in four Americans have multiple diseases and the prevalence and burden of chronic disease in the elderly and racial/ethnic minorities are notably disproportionate. Chronic disease has now emerged as a major public health problem and it threatens not only population health, but our social and economic welfare…………..”


“……….
The report describes the economic consequences of chronic illnesses for individuals, their families, the health care system, and the nation; provides a concerted approach to understanding the dimensions of prevention as they relate to chronic disease control in the community; highlights the populations that experience chronic illnesses disproportionately; considers a wide spectrum of chronic diseases and their clinical stages, their patterns and anticipated course, and the common or cross-cutting burden and consequences of living with chronic illness; details how to improve surveillance systems to better assess and address chronic illnesses; describes the role of public health and community-based interventions for chronic disease management and control; considers the importance of federal policy in enhancing chronic disease control; and highlights the critical role of aligning public health, health care system, and non–health care community services as a system change to better control chronic illnesses.

The committee concludes that all chronic illnesses have the potential to reduce population health by limiting individual capacity to live well. Maintaining or enhancing quality of life for individuals living with chronic illnesses has not been given the attention it needs by health care funders, health systems, policy makers, and public health programs and agencies. There are domains of chronic disease management from a public health perspective for which there is not enough research or program evaluation. Much more needs to be done.

 

The committee does not recommend a specific set of diseases on which to focus for public health action. Instead, we describe nine exemplar diseases, health conditions, and impairments that have notable implications for the nation’s health and economy; impact quality of life and functional status; cut across many chronic illnesses; complicate and/or increase risks for multiple chronic conditions (MCCs); and impact the community, families, and caregivers of those with chronic illnesses. Each represents an important challenge to public health…………..”

 

Content

 

ABSTRACT

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

1 LIVING WELL WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS

2 CHRONIC ILLNESSES AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH THEM

3 POLICY

4 COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTION

5 SURVEILLANCE AND ASSESSMENT

6 INTERFACE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM, THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, AND THE NONHEALTHCARE SECTOR 199-224  

7 THE CALL FOR ACTION


APPENDIX A IMPROVING RECOGNITION AND QUALITY OF DEPRESSION CARE IN PATIENTS WITH COMMON CHRONIC MEDICAL ILLNESSES

APPENDIX B NEW MODELS OF COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC CONDITIONS

 

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Monday, January 30, 2012

[EQ] Indicators as Interventions: pitfalls and prospects in supporting development initiatives

Indicators as Interventions:
pitfalls and prospects in supporting development initiatives

 

Rockefeller Foundation, December 2011

Kevin Davis and Benedict Kingsbury

 

Available online PDF [55p.] at: http://bit.ly/wnTGHo

 

“………..One of the most interesting findings presented in the report is that the process of creating and disseminating indicators can be an effective intervention that is particularly useful in addressing and marshaling a response to wicked problems—complex, interdependent, ever-changing global issues that require the application of iterative solutions in order to be managed successfully. As the authors point out, it is valuable to compare indicators with other potential interventions in the international development system and, in their most compelling and powerful form, use them to trigger actions that move us one step closer to addressing challenges affecting the lives of poor and vulnerable populations on a daily basis.

 

The ability of indicators to help reframe problems related to poverty and globalization is an excellent example of how new kinds of evidence can play an outsized role in shaping the responses undertaken by philanthropies, governments, and other organizations interested in ensuring social change. Moving forward, the growing emergence of user-generated information that actively involves beneficiaries in the collection, production, and assessment of data will likely significantly shape the next generation of indicators.

 

Similarly, a shift in the locus of indicator construction is also likely to take place in the coming years, moving away from the current situation in which institutions based in the global North produce indicators about challenges taking place in the global South and, instead, lead to a rise in South-South collaboration related to indicator construction. An example of this trend is the Ibrahim Index of African Governance created by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an instance where an African-based institution has developed an increasingly well-known indicator that tracks the quality of governance across the continent.

 

In conclusion, this important contribution to the field highlights how indicators create valuable, necessary, and quantifiable simplifications that both illuminate key dimensions of a complex problem while simultaneously allowing important comparisons to be made.

 

Readers will find the report useful whether they plan to create a new indicator, want to better understand tradeoffs between indicators and other intervention options, or evaluate in what ways indicators can be deployed most effectively. Finally, the report highlights pathways for needed future research about how indicators can lead to action and impact……….”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

1.1. Top-down problem-solving and the pathologies and pitfalls of indicators

2. Indicators and their alternatives

2.1. What is an indicator?

2.2. How indicators are produced

2.3. Alternatives to indicators

2.4. Case Studies

1. WHO/UNICEF Immunization Coverage Indicators

2. State Failure: The U.S. Fund for Peace Failed States Index

3. Impact Investment: The Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS)

3. Roles for indicators in addressing social problems

`                               3.1. The process of addressing social problems: framing, action, contestation, updating

4. Learning and Revision

4. Indicators and the framing of social problems

4.1. How indicators frame problems

4.2. Indicators: validity and measurement error

4.3. Discrepancies in framing between the indicator and the gold standard for the problem

4.4. Indicators that frame problems controversially

4.5. Do indicators promote common understandings?

5. How indicators influence action

5.1. Which indicators influence action?

5.2. What factors determine the influence of indicators?

5.3. Under what conditions can indicators promote optimally constructive action?

5.4. When do indicators promote coordinated action?

5.5. Does use of indicators enhance accountability for actions?

6. Contestation around indicators

7. Learning and revision

8. Conclusion

Appendix

This report draws extensively on background papers authored for this project by Nehal Bhuta, Sarah Dadush, and Angelina Fisher. Their papers appear, with substantial modifications, in K. Davis, A. Fisher, B. Kingsbury, and S. Merry eds., Governance by Indicators: Global Power Through Quantification and Rankings (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012).

 

Indicators as a Technology of Global Governance


PDF file [60p.] http://bit.ly/y7hn5C

IILJ Working Paper 2010/2 Rev

“…..
The use of indicators is a prominent feature of contemporary global governance. Indicators are produced by organizations ranging from public actors such as the World Bank or the US State Department, to NGOs such as Freedom House, to hybrid entities such as the Global Fund, to private sector political risk rating agencies. They are used to compare and rank states for purposes as varied as deciding how to allocate foreign aid or investment and whether states have complied with their treaty obligations.

 

This paper defines the concept of an “indicator”, analyzes distinctive features of indicators as technologies of governance, and identifies various ways in which the use of indicators has the potential to alter the topology and dynamics of global governance.

Particular attention is paid to how indicators can affect processes of standard setting, decision-making, and contestation in global governance. The World Bank Doing Business indicators and the United Nations Human Development Index are analyzed as case studies…..”

 

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[EQ] Strengthening Health Systems: Perspectives for economic evaluation

Strengthening Health Systems: Perspectives for economic evaluation

Till Bärnighausen, David E. Bloom, Salal Humair

Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population

Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

School of Science and Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

 

Harvard Initiative for Global Health - January 2012 - PGDA Working Paper No. 85

Available online at: http://bit.ly/zcTV3L

"……..The recent shift towards funding HSS as opposed to funding only stand-alone HIV interventions has the potential to increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of HIV programs. But several issues arise when considering when and how to combine HSS interventions with HIV-focused programs, and how to evaluate their costs and benefits.
First, the combination needs to be designed taking into account each country's circumstances.
Second, HSS interventions can differ substantially in scope or scale, raising different challenges in the evaluation of costs and benefits.

 

Finally, a full evaluation of an intervention needs to take into account issues such as feedback resulting from the intervention itself; and unintended consequences that can have major implications, particularly for the cost-benefit analyses of interventions such as those proposed by McGreevey et al. . Dynamic models that incorporate both feedback and unintended consequences are essential for a proper costbenefit accounting of HSS interventions…"

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[EQ] A Framework for Disseminating Evidence-Based Health Promotion Practices

A Framework for Disseminating Evidence-Based Health Promotion Practices

Jeffrey R. Harris, Allen Cheadle, Peggy A. Hannon, Patricia Lichiello, University of Washington, Health Promotion Research Center, Seattle, Washington;

Mark Forehand, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington;
Eustacia Mahoney, American Cancer Society, Seattle, Washington; Susan Snyder, Senior Services, Seattle, Washington.


Prev Chronic Dis - January 2012 Volume 9:110081.

Available online at: http://1.usa.gov/ysYbwJ

 

“…….Wider adoption of evidence-based, health promotion practices depends on developing and testing effective dissemination approaches. To assist in developing these approaches, we created a practical framework drawn from the literature on dissemination and our experiences disseminating evidence-based practices.

The main elements of our framework are
1) a close partnership between researchers and a disseminating organization that takes ownership of the dissemination process and
2) use of social marketing principles to work closely with potential user organizations.

 

We present 2 examples illustrating the framework: Enhance Fitness, for physical activity among older adults, and American Cancer Society Workplace Solutions, for chronic disease prevention among workers.
We also discuss 7 practical roles that researchers play in dissemination and related research: sorting through the evidence, conducting formative research, assessing readiness of user organizations, balancing fidelity and reinvention, monitoring and evaluating, influencing the outer context, and testing dissemination approaches…………”

 

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