This is a recording of the M&E Thursday Talk hosted on February 22nd, 2018 as Jessica Baumgardner-Zuzik of Alliance for Peacebuilding led a discussion on the “7 Guiding Steps to Achieve Better Learning in Peacebuilding Evaluation.”
While the importance of the peacebuilding field cannot be questioned, we often struggle to demonstrate the effectiveness of our interventions. This lack of evidence is one of the greatest challenges that faces the peacebuilding field, and it accounts, in part, for the limited funding available for peacebuilding projects.
To respond to this challenge, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, launched the Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium (PEC) with Mercy Corps, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, and Search for Common Ground.
As part of this effort, the PEC has drafted the Guiding Steps for Peacebuilding Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation. We know that good evaluation can only happen if we think about learning and evidence at the very start of a program. This document outlines seven minimum steps that every peacebuilding program must go through to contribute robust evidence and learning to the field, from conducting the initial conflict assessment to the final evaluation. This conversation reviewed the proposed 7 steps, discussed what may be missing and what needs to be revised, and ended with a conversation on next steps and how best to use this resource.