Sara Dewachter

Multiple Paths to Effective National Evaluation Societies: Evidence from 37 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

National Evaluation Societies (NES) are situated at the intersection between Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) supply and demand. To date, little research has explored NES and their potential for strengthening national M&E. This study addresses this gap, examining perceived NES performance relevant to organizational and policy-oriented goals while identifying factors related to that performance. The study draws upon data from a survey of 40 NES in 37 low- and middle-income countries. Qualitative Comparative Analysis identifies multiple pathways to well-performing NES and focuses on the interplay between the context in which evaluation societies operate and their organizational characteristics. The findings underline the importance of political openness while also demonstrating that some NES manage to perform well even in challenging political environments.

Who Takes a Seat at the Pro-Poor Table?: Civil Society Participation in the Honduran Poverty Reduction Strategy

Although much has been written on civil society participation in the formulation and monitoring of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), very little systematic and scientific evidence exists on the kind of organizations that participate and the elements that explain their involvement in these processes. This article considers one country case, Honduras, for which survey data were gathered from 101 civil society organizations (CSOs) in 2006. This study examines the characteristics these organizations display which explain (non)participation in the next participatory round of the PRSPs. The findings challenge some of the by now widely accepted ideas relating to the kinds of organizations involved in PRSP processes. The idea that predominantly urban-based, highly professional, well-funded, donor-bred-and-fed nongovernmental organizations participate is too blunt. The Honduran case shows that the players in participative processes are more diversified than much of the current literature on PRSPs suggests.

Look Who's Talking. Explaining Water-Related Information Sharing and Demand for Action Among Ugandan Villagers.

Many national water policies propagate community-based participatory approaches to overcome weaknesses in supply-driven rural water provision, operation, and maintenance. Citizen involvement is thought to stimulate bottom-up accountability and broaden the information base, which may enrich design and implementation processes and foster improved water accessibility and sustainability. Practices on the ground, however, are embedded in socio-political realities which mediate possible beneficial effects of participatory approaches. This paper builds on full social network data collected in a Ugandan village to study the social and political reality of two distinct levels of participation, i.e. local information sharing among citizens and a more active appeal to fellow citizens to improve water services. We use Logistic Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure to explore what type of actor and network traits influence information sharing and whether the same factors are in play in the demand for action to remedy water-related problems. Whereas social aspects (social support relations) and homophily (using the same water source, the same gender) play an important role in information sharing, it is the educational level, in particular, of the villager who is called upon that is important when villagers demand action. Our findings also demonstrate that those most in need of safe water do not mobilize their information sharing ties to demand for action. This indicates that building local water policies and practice exclusively on locally existing demand for action may fail to capture the needs of the most deprived citizens.

Intersecting social-capital and perceived-efficacy perspectives to explain underperformance in community-based monitoring:

While community-based monitoring is becoming increasingly commonplace, evidence as to its functioning remains inconsistent. Based on Ugandan village network and survey data, this article studies community-based monitoring from a social-capital and perceived-efficacy perspective. From a social-capital perspective, the prospects for community-based monitoring look promising as there is a high social-capital stock and an efficient information-sharing network galvanizing information for a few key individuals. The dominant efficacy profiles are also encouraging as there is an abundance of ‘followers’ (with high belief in collective capabilities) and some ‘leaders’ for collective action (with high belief in individual and collective capabilities). And yet, few community-based monitoring activities are undertaken. Our article shows that only the intersection of both theoretical lenses explains the underperformance in community-based monitoring, as those actors who are central in the information-sharing network do not have a ‘leadership’ efficacy profile while those who are ‘leaders’ are not central in the village information network.

Building national M&E systems in the context of changing aid modalities: the underexplored potential of national evaluation societies.

Changes in the aid architecture have provided a renewed impetus for monitoring and evaluation (M&E), while simultaneously imposing a major reform agenda on the key players involved. More specifically, since 1999, aid-dependent countries have been facing pressure to strengthen their national M&E systems, while donors have been asked to refrain from using their own parallel systems and to rely instead on country systems. Surprisingly, attempts to strengthen national M&E frameworks have thus far largely overlooked the potential of national evaluation societies (NES). Similarly, NES have also remained off the academic radar. Our study aims to fill this gap by mapping key features of NES, as well as their perceived contributions to country-led M&E. In this effort, we rely upon evidence from our survey of 23 NES in Sub-Saharan African countries with Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PSRP). Our findings show that there is quite some diversity among NES. Overall, NES are active organisations, whose unique membership features a wide variety of national M&E stakeholders who potentially play key roles in country-led and localised M&E development. Major obstacles faced by NES include the lack of financial resources, donor support and political influence. Survey findings also demonstrate that the increasing interest of donors and governments in NES has yet to materialise into strategic support.

How does water information flow? Intersectionality in water information networks in a rural Ugandan community

ABSTRACT This article presents evidence of a Ugandan community’s information network related to water services and argues that an intersectional perspective is key to understanding information exclusion processes. Using questionnaire data and social network analysis, the article compares access to water information channels by gender and education level. While men primarily share information with other men, women mainly exchange water information along educational lines. Less-educated women are least likely to receive information from other gender-education groups. Women are also underrepresented in the network of local government officials and consequently lack bridging ties, remaining more dependent on informal information channels.