International Series

While the recordings from our Coffee Break Webinar series are normally members-only, the American Evaluation Association is pleased to make this set from July of 2012, and focusing on M&E, available to the public. Thanks to our co-sponsors - Catholic Relief Services, American Red Cross/Red Crescent, United States Agency for International Development, and AEA’s International and Cross Cultural TIG for helping to make this happen!


Monitoring & Evaluation Planning for Projects/Programs - Scott Chaplowe
Description: This webinar is part of a four-part series on monitoring and evaluation. In this Coffee Break, Scott Chaplowe will provide concise guidance to develop and implement an M&E system for project planning, implementation, and evaluation. The webinar covers the key components of a M&E system that trace a logical train of thought from the project’s theory of change to the specific objectives needed for these changes, methods for measuring change, and protocols for collecting and analyzing data and information.



Evaluation Jitters Part One: Planning for an Evaluation - Alice Willard

Description: This webinar is part of a four-part series on monitoring and evaluation.One of the challenges with evaluations is that staff often think the work to prepare for an evaluation is completed with the basic scope of work. As a result, evaluators often arrive to conduct an evaluation and find that some basic data organization and prep work have not been done, adding stress, misunderstandings, and cost to the evaluation. This Coffee Break will introduce The Pre-Evaluation Guide, which provides several easy steps to help prepare for an evaluation, from basic document management through logistics organization.




SMILER: Simple Measurement of Indicators & Learning for Evidence-based Reporting - Guy Sharrock & Susan Hahn

Description: This webinar is part of a four-part series on monitoring and evaluation. To be successful projects must lean towards an adaptive management style and all staff must have a clear understanding of the project monitoring system and their role in its implementation. Yet few manuals exist on the nitty-gritty task of how to set up a monitoring system. CRS has created an approach to setting up a project monitoring system – SMILER – that includes mechanisms to turn data into useful knowledge that informs project learning and decision making whilst maintaining a focus on achieving results and reporting accomplishments. By emphasizing project monitoring, SMILER seeks to balance the need for project staff to seek and listen with the more formal obligations of evaluation to quantify and prove. The presentation will introduce SMILER and some useful tips of turning M&E rhetoric into practical reality.




Evaluation Jitters Part Two: Managing an Evaluation - Alice Willard

Description: This webinar is part of a four-part series on monitoring and evaluation. Once an evaluation begins, the evaluation team needs a key organizational contact. This contact is often a junior staff person assigned to 'manage' the evaluation process. Rather than a technical or a senior manager, this contact's job can include helping smooth logistics (setting up meetings), providing routine communication to the organization's management about the progress of the evaluation, and also serving as the 'go to' for challenges and opportunities that come up during an evaluation. This webinar will introduce The Managing an Evaluation Guide, which provides several tips on how to schedule and organize the evaluation team.