Within all policy areas; what to evaluate, when to evaluate, and how to evaluate are questions of central importance. Proper evaluation demands appropriate evaluation methods, and knowing when (or when not) to use a method in relation to questions posed in a specific evaluation context is often a difficult task. This is true for evaluators (who also need to know how to apply the method) as well as for buyers of evaluations (who also need to have an opinion about the usefulness of the method being proposed by evaluators).
In a new EBA report, “Pathways to Change: Evaluating Development Interventions with Qualitative Comparative Advantage (QCA)” Barbara Befani presents one specific evaluation method, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). The report is a self-contained how to-guide to QCA, built on real-world cases. It also discusses issues of relevance for commissioners of evaluations using QCA, in particular on how to quality-assure such evaluations.
The seminar takes place in central Stockholm. After a general presentation, two breakout sessions are offered: a shorter session for commissioners of evaluations and a longer technical workshop for evaluators in how to apply the model.
Programme
09.00 Presentation of the report
10.20 Breakout sessions
- How to QCA, introductory steps
- The need-to-knows when commissioning evaluations using QCA
13.00 How to QCA
Presentation of selected cases.
Speakers
Barbara Befani is an independent Researcher/Consultant with a European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (thesis in Evaluation Methodology) and MSc in Social Statistics. Former Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, she is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and Research Associate at the University of East Anglia. Barbara has over ten years of experience in evaluation methodology research and Consultancy. Her fields of expertise are set-theoretic approaches to impact evaluation (QCA and Process Tracing/Bayesian Updating); criteria to select methods in IE designs; and models for causal analysis.
Kim Forss, Member of the Expert Group for Aid Studies. Kim is the founder and owner of the company Andante – tools for thinking AB, which specializes in evaluation – research and teaching on the evaluation, methodology and implementation of the evaluation mission. He holds a PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics and has extensive international experience in evaluating development aid. He is among the first members of the Swedish Evaluation Society where he has served on the board for six years, 2010 and 2011 as chairman.
Rick Davies, is an independent monitoring and evaluation consultant. He has worked with national and international NGOs and bilateral and multilateral aid organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia since 1980. His PhD thesis was on organizational learning in NGOs in Bangladesh.
Katarina Perrolf, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at Sida.