Evaluation and Learning Study

1. Informed Consent

Thank you for participating in the EVALNET Evaluation and Learning Study.

We are conducting a learning study on behalf OECD/DAC Evaluation Network (EVALNET) in collaboration with the Afghan Evaluation Society (AfES).

The purpose of the study is to draw practical lessons on how we can learn from evaluation in fragile and crises contexts; what worked and what did not work in evaluations and why?

The study will produce key lessons and recommendations for use by Policy makers, Programme Staff, Evaluation Commissioners and Evaluators.

The study will cover evidence-based policy making as a cross-cutting topic.

The study will not collect your personal information and will not mention your name or name of your organization, or the names of people or organizations you might mention, in the report or anywhere publicly. We will be only be summarizing and synthesizing the data and grouping them such as based on sector (multilateral, UN Agencies and so on) so that they are not personally identifiable.

All the information you provide will be treated with strict confidentiality and will not be affiliated with your name. We will treat the data anonymous. We will work in ways to ensure that your responses are treated confidentially and anonymously.

We are highly considerate to strictly follow and prioritize the DO NO HARM principles in the study, to protect team members, researchers, participants, and those that might be indirectly affected by the study – we are also considerate of the current context of fragiliy, crisis, and many of us are directly/indirectly affected in different ways; if you do not want to answer any of the questions, simply skip it. You can also terminate/end the survey at any time; and withdraw your consent from the research study at any time.

However, we encourage and urge you to participate in this study by sharing your first-hand experiences from engaging in evaluations in fragile, crisis and humaniterian contexts. Participation in this study is voluntary, however, we will share a copy of the final products with those who participated in the study.

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* 1. Do you agree to participate in this study?

Yes (Continue)

No (Terminate Survey)

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* 2. Are you currently or have in the past been involved in supporting development co-operation, humanitarian, or peace-building efforts in Afghanistan or another country of fragile, humanitarian and development co-operation context?

Yes (I am in Afghanistan and involved in some capacity)

Yes (I am outside of Afghanistan, but currently involved in some capacity in evaluations in fragile/crisis context)

Yes (I am/was located or involved in another fragile and humanitarian context country/ region)

No (Terminate Survey)

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* 3. In what capacity are you/ were you involved in an evaluation?

Evaluation Manager / evaluation management team member

External Evaluator/ Evaluation Firm / Independent evaluator

Evaluation commissioner / donor/ funder (decision-maker)

Decision-maker, including policy/ program/ operations leads/staff, implementing organisation or other (involved in project being evaluated or receiving evaluation recommendations)

Other (please specify)

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* 4. Your category of organization or affiliation

UN Agency

Multilateral organization

International Organization/NGO/ Foundation

Private Sector

Local NGO/ Community Organization / Think-tank

Evaluation Firm/Consultancy/ Independent Evaluator

Public Sector/ Government

Other (please specify)

Note on the process: The process for this survey follows a case-study approach – we understand that you might have been engaged in multiple evaluations. Therefore, we want you to think and recall one of those evaluations that you were involved with, select the one evaluation that you think was the most influential/useful, which was used for learning or influenced decision-making (about the intervention/evaluand/program/policy, that was evaluated or other interventions). Your consolidated answers about that single evaluation will tell an interesting story, to create knowledge for promoting evidence-informed decision-making.

Based on your first-hand experience involved in an evaluation in Afghanistan or another crisis context, please answer the following questions.

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* 5. Add a few sentences about the evaluation, for example, name of the evaluation, type, year it was done, sector, country/region. If possible, include a link to the evaluation report (OPTIONAL)

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* 6. The evaluation was conducted by:

An internal evaluation team/member

International evaluator(s) only

National/local evaluator(s) only

Both national and international evaluator(s)

Don’t Know

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* 7. The methods and approaches used in the evaluation had considered quality and followed a standard, such as UNEG or OECD/DAC evaluation quality standards or other agency standards?

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Not Applicable

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* 8. The evaluation findings/recommendations were communicated to all relevant stakeholders of the evaluation?

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Agree

Strongly agree

If disagree, why?

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* 9. Following avenues were used to communicate evaluation findings/recommendations (SELECT ALL that APPLY)

Learning workshop with all stakeholders

Evaluation report was translated to the local language(s)

Evaluation findings/recommendations were shared with national/local government

Findings were shared with concerned communities / beneficiaries

Findings were only shared/discussed internally with the project/intervention (that was evaluated)

Findings were shared or discussed with the donor/funding agency

Public dissemination (press conference, publication of the report, etc.)

Wider dissemination was done through multiple communication channels

Other (please specify)

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* 10. Were the findings and recommendations used by your agency?

Yes

How?

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* 11. If yes, I consider that the evaluation was used/useful, because: (SELECT ALL that APPLY)

Evaluation was of high-quality

Evidence was communicated in a timely way (arrived at the right moment)

It provided actionable recommendations to improve the intervention

The recommendations were supported with adequate evidence

The report was succinct

There was no other evidence available to inform decisions

The evaluators/team were reputable

The evaluation methodology was credible

The evaluation had surprising findings or findings that challenges widely held beliefs/assumptions

Other (please specify)

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* 12. Do you think that the evaluation findings provided you what you needed to make decisions about the evaluand?

Yes fully

To a limited degree

Not at all

Not applicable

Please explain