Gender and Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Event June 4-6, Boston, US
COMMUNIQUE “When you work for women’s interests, it’s two steps forward – and at least one step back. And those steps back are…often evidence of your effectiveness; they represent the threat you have posed to the power structure, and its attempt to push you back.”
Colleagues from 11 affiliates1 and the Secretariat, and representatives from five partner organizations2 met in Boston for Oxfam’s first Gender and Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Event. A gathering of "practical visionaries", the Event was characterized by deep passion and thoughtful reflection. We are particularly excited to share what we think are exciting reflections to achieve the ambitions for social transformation laid out in our new Strategic Plan. Surprising conclusions? Oxfam's rights-based approach is deeply rooted in a theory of change that posits that unequal power relations are at the heart of injustice and inequality. Supporting people - in their households, communities, organizations and movements - to understand, speak out about, and change gender and power relations that affect them negatively is at the heart of Oxfam's role. As it turns out, our theory of change is consistent with feminism, which posits that gender inequalities lead to social injustice and that discrimination based on gender is structural and systematic. Like Oxfam, feminism challenges unequal power relations. Making explicit how we think unequal power relations between women and men will be transformed, and how we will measure our contributions to these transformations, will be key in advancing Oxfam’s commitment to putting women’s rights at the heart of all we do. Feminist principles are consistent with Oxfam's aspiration to improve program quality and to support transformative programming - how Oxfam acts in support of rights-based programming is as important as the goals we share with people and organizations around the world. Finally, feminism is perhaps particularly relevant to Oxfam's aspirations to improve monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning. For example, attempts to change unequal power relations between women and men, no 1
Oxfams America, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Québec, and Spain, Humanity Bright Organization, Cambodia; Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development, Jordan; La Corriente Feminista, Nicaragua; Women on Farms Project, South Africa; Amanitare Sexual Rights Network, South Africa. 2
matter where they have occurred in the world, are often met with resistance and backlash. And while Oxfam's MEAL systems are already evolving to try to address complexity and non-linearity, participants recognized the importance of further refining our thinking on the measurement and evidence challenge of resistance to change. How did we get there? The Event's forty participants3 shared their expertise and experience in measuring gender power relations in women's rights and gender mainstreamed programs, covering long-term development, humanitarian, and campaigning. We were joined by the following resource persons: Rex Fyles, Carol Miller, Alexandra Pittman, Aruna Rao, and Ricardo Wilson-Grau, who all brought significant experience in techniques and practice linked to feminist evaluation.4 We agreed that the term "feminist evaluation" was too limited, and preferred to speak of feminist principles of transformational programming, including its MEAL dimensions. We learned about complexity theory, in which problems are characterized by varying opinions about the focus of the development challenge and about the way to proceed, and by varying levels of uncertainty about the results of our interventions. There was much thoughtful discussion about the concept of "deep culture", that is, the ways in which power is understood and exercised within organizations, and agreement that more discussion would be welcome on how we experience power within Oxfam. We were rigorous in bringing the focus back to MEAL - what did these principles and concepts mean for our programming and our efforts to assess and learn from them? How can these concepts be operationalized? We explored Most Significant Change and Outcome Harvesting, two methods among a number of others which can help meet some of the challenges we explored, such as: ensuring beneficiaries are empowered as part of the MEAL process, measuring deep culture change and recording resistance as part of change. We were introduced to complex systems thinking with applicability to a MEAL practice based on feminist principles - setting boundaries on what is in and outside of focus, and paying close attention to both the interrelationships within those boundaries and the degree to which perspectives align or differ. We discussed the importance of mixed methods, and of collecting quantitative and qualitative data. We learned that we use the concept of accountability inconsistently and more work remains to ensure that accountability related efforts reflect feminist principles. Reference materials from the event can be found on SUMUS (https://sumus.oxfam.org/gjmeal-event-4-6june-2013-boston) Implications and Suggested Next Steps At the event, we articulated a draft set of principles for Oxfam's approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning: Since: -we seek the transformation of gender and power relations, -assessment is political, -knowledge should be used of and for the people who create, own and share it, -knowledge and values are cultural, socially and temporarily contingent, -there are many ways of knowing, Then, MEAL should -examine gender and power relations, how they change, and why, -be participatory and characterized by a horizontal approach, -favour collective learning, 3
We note that approximately 30 more colleagues had expressed interest in attending; unfortunately participation had to be limited due to logistical constraints. 4 Bonnie Shepard and Laura Roper, independent evaluators from Boston, joined the group for an evening panel session on the practical implications of feminist evaluation, as well.
-be flexible and adaptable, -track and capture negative impacts, resistance, reaction, -use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and -use methods that assess our contribution, not that demand attribution. Partner organizations encouraged us to ensure what we learned was integrated into how the confederation does its work. Exploring how to infuse principles such as those above in the confederation's Policy for Program Evaluation, which is currently under review, emerged as a starting point. However, all participants were clear on the fact that while there is much to build on, much is needed to operationalize transformative principles, including strengthening staff and partner capacity. Luckily there are a number of opportunities to do so. The Program Quality and MEL enabling goal group provides a space to bring focused attention to help the confederation improve its transformational program capacity, and this group is further supported by both the Gender Justice (GJ) group and the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) network. In the case of the former, and as just one example, work on developing a confederation-wide Gender and Power Analysis Training has already been informed by learning from this Event. In the case of the MEL network, and again to name just one example, the Common Approach to MEL and Social Accountability is a prime vehicle to bring the principles, concepts and tools to colleagues confederation-wide. A White Paper will be produced over the next few months, which will expand on the learning from the Event and its implications for Oxfam. Additional suggestions for concrete steps will be raised to the GJ management team and the MEL network for consideration. Meanwhile, participants committed to sharing the learning from the Event in their programs and affiliates or organizations, and the Advisory Committee is considering ways in which to continue the dialogue within the confederation. We note here a few illustrative topics that could be the focus of future learning, such as: how to measure informal influencing; how to measure changes in attitudes, perceptions and behaviours; whether technology can help us reach and hear more women's voices; the challenges of intersectionality; and our responsibility to engage donors to better recognize the challenges of complexity in MEAL and validate methods to address this, and the politics of evidence in general. In all this potential future work, and much as we did during this Event, we will continue to build on the assets across the confederation and amongst partners. Indeed, it was inspiring to see the degree to which Oxfam and partners are really on the cutting edge of innovation related to power and complex change. Acknowledgments The Advisory Committee would like to thank the members of the Organizing Committee: Laura Haylock (Oxfam Canada), Maite Matheu (Intermon Oxfam), Krystina Nguyen (Oxfam America), Alivelu Ramisetty (Oxfam America), and Chloe Safier (Oxfam International). We sincerely thank Ray Offenheiser for agreeing to host this event in Boston, and to Oxfam America staff for their hospitality. We thank the following for their financial contributions to this event: Oxfam Germany, Oxfam America, Oxfam Canada, Intermon Oxfam, Oxfam Great Britain and the Secretariat.
Gender Justice MEAL Event Advisory Committee Caroline Marrs (OCA), Mary Sue Smiaroski (OI MEL), Shawna Wakefield (OI GJ)