BREAKING THE MOULD: Discussing pandemic-shaped evaluations
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irplanes grounded. Cruise ships at bay. Passenger trains silenced. Post-apocalyptic science fiction? No, COVID-19. The year 2020 caught the world by storm, but there were those who found a way to weather it. The ability to react to the pandemic proved the prerogative of those able to adapt to the unforeseeable, to react to the unimaginable. While perfect coping strategies may have been difficult to come by, creative planning, imaginative approaches and blue-sky thinking paved the way for some exciting results. The pandemic called for a resourceful mind-set; and a resourceful mind-set was what IOE put on display. As the first evaluations carried out by IOE during the pandemic are becoming publicly available, Independent Magazine caught-up with Fabrizio Felloni, IOE Deputy Director, for an insightful one-on-one chat.
Good morning, Fabrizio. Good morning, Alexander. What were the main challenges IOE was confronted with in the face of the pandemic? Arguably, the main challenge was the inability to conduct international missions, as well as extensive field data collection, which had a number of implications for IOE’s work. For instance, we had to consider how to maintain methodological rigour and credibility vis-à-vis corporate governing bodies, how to command sufficient attention from IFAD management and government counterparts, how to maintain IOE office functionality and working relationships, and how to ensure the well-being of all staff members and consultants, to name but a few. To address these challenging circumstances, what measures did IOE take to ensure robustness of the analysis, while maintaining the functional and behavioural independence of the evaluation team? Evaluations adopted an innovative combination of approaches. These included remote interviews and mini-surveys, where feasible, by phone, Skype and Zoom, in addition to questionnaires sent via email to stakeholders. We also tested alternative methods for primary and secondary evidence collection and validation. For instance, in some cases we used geospatial data and analysis, especially for projects investing in physical infrastructure (for example on market infrastructure in Bangladesh). A colleague also tried Rapid Evidence Assessment for his work on climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers. This technique synthesizes secondary evidence related to an evaluation from published literature and websites. We also used external reviewers to crosscheck contextual information and enhance the quality of the analysis. Obviously, given that IOE staff and international consultants could not travel, more responsibilities were devolved to national consultants.
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