Confronting SBC Realities More Fully: The Challenge of Context in Monitoring and Evaluation
Summary:
What constitutes appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of social and behavior change (SBC) interventions has been a persistent debate among government, implementers, and donors, and stakeholders. This high-level panel presents a diverse set of researchers and field-based implementers who will question how we learn while implementing SBC interventions. This will include asking how the SBC community is addressing realities of implementation and the adequacy of our response to them. Panelists include: Dr. Amare Bayeh, Senior Immunization Expert, JSI, Ethiopia; Silvester Okot, SBC Advisor, RHITES-N, Acholi, URC, Uganda; Dr. Sohail Agha, Gates Foundation; Dr. Joseph Petraglia, Syntegral; and Caroline Tangoren, J-PAL. The panel will pose questions to provoke audience reflection related to: adaptive management in complex environments; M&E in an increasingly digitalized world and scaling digital platforms; how donors can help create conditions wherein continuous learning can be adopted by implementing organizations; how unavoidably differing interpretations of SBC realities are persistently ignored; and the value of impact evaluations to identify key behavioral insights into how individuals make decisions. The panel will provoke the audience to propose tangible solutions and will outline a call to action for stakeholders, grounded in field-based experience and insight. Solutions will allow all participants to share the results with the global SBC community and other related stakeholders to hold all more accountable to show results and building further evidence through robust M&E.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
This session will assist the audience in grappling with critical problems and proposed and tested solutions to longstanding problems the SBC community has faced in M&E. Considering new thinking about context, adaptive management, quality improvement, or a new role for experimental methods, panelists with governmental, donor, and implementer experience will challenge participants to ask how well our M&E practices genuinely support the outcomes we say we design our programs to meet. Proposed ways forward will advocate for the discussion be shared widely to hold all stakeholders involved to hold us more accountable regarding M&E of SBC.
Abstract submitted by:
Kamden Hoffmann - Corus International
Amare Desta - JSI
Silverster Okot - University Research Co.,LLC | Center for Human Services
Sohail Agha - Gates Foundation
Joseph Petraglia - Syntegral
Caroline Tangoren - Poverty Action Lab
Paul Hewett - Population Council
What constitutes appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of social and behavior change (SBC) interventions has been a persistent debate among government, implementers, and donors, and stakeholders. This high-level panel presents a diverse set of researchers and field-based implementers who will question how we learn while implementing SBC interventions. This will include asking how the SBC community is addressing realities of implementation and the adequacy of our response to them. Panelists include: Dr. Amare Bayeh, Senior Immunization Expert, JSI, Ethiopia; Silvester Okot, SBC Advisor, RHITES-N, Acholi, URC, Uganda; Dr. Sohail Agha, Gates Foundation; Dr. Joseph Petraglia, Syntegral; and Caroline Tangoren, J-PAL. The panel will pose questions to provoke audience reflection related to: adaptive management in complex environments; M&E in an increasingly digitalized world and scaling digital platforms; how donors can help create conditions wherein continuous learning can be adopted by implementing organizations; how unavoidably differing interpretations of SBC realities are persistently ignored; and the value of impact evaluations to identify key behavioral insights into how individuals make decisions. The panel will provoke the audience to propose tangible solutions and will outline a call to action for stakeholders, grounded in field-based experience and insight. Solutions will allow all participants to share the results with the global SBC community and other related stakeholders to hold all more accountable to show results and building further evidence through robust M&E.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
This session will assist the audience in grappling with critical problems and proposed and tested solutions to longstanding problems the SBC community has faced in M&E. Considering new thinking about context, adaptive management, quality improvement, or a new role for experimental methods, panelists with governmental, donor, and implementer experience will challenge participants to ask how well our M&E practices genuinely support the outcomes we say we design our programs to meet. Proposed ways forward will advocate for the discussion be shared widely to hold all stakeholders involved to hold us more accountable regarding M&E of SBC.
Abstract submitted by:
Kamden Hoffmann - Corus International
Amare Desta - JSI
Silverster Okot - University Research Co.,LLC | Center for Human Services
Sohail Agha - Gates Foundation
Joseph Petraglia - Syntegral
Caroline Tangoren - Poverty Action Lab
Paul Hewett - Population Council
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: Montakan Tanchaisawat, USAID via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)