On July 7th, 2016 at 10:00am EST the M&E Thursday Talk series was hosted by Clayton Maring, Manager of Program Quality and Growth for Catholic Relief Services in Kenya and Somalia, and is an advisor to the Conflict Resolution program at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, who lead a discussion on Confronting Complexity in Evaluating Peacebuilding Practice.
Please find the recording of the webinar below:
M&E Thursday Talk- Confronting Complexity in Evaluating Peacebuilding Practice from DME for Peace on Vimeo.
There are a number of us who are committed to supporting peace processes from afar. We are not conflict insiders and do not intervene through on-the-ground peace and conflict resolution on a daily basis. However, we provide support (monetary and spiritual) for peacebuilding work, strengthen organizational and individual capacity, convene networks, and make connections that impact individuals and organizations working in conflict zones around the world. Such work puts us in touch with a diversity of individuals, organizations, and contexts around the globe that defy aggregation or direct comparison. We know our work has an impact, but how do we evaluate it? How do we create meaningful data that helps us to improve? Drawing on almost 20 years of working with religious peacebuilders around the world, the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding has spent the past few years struggling with these questions, iterating, evaluating, and adapting its monitoring and evaluation system for its Conflict Resolution program. This brief talk will present some of the impasses Tanenbaum has faced and insights the organization has gleaned from its continued process of organizational learning.
About the Speaker:
Clayton Maring is Manager of Program Quality and Growth for Catholic Relief Services in Kenya and Somalia, and is an advisor to the Conflict Resolution program at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. Clayton provides support to CRS national staff and local partners in developing and implementing high-quality and methodologically rigorous development and peace programming. Clayton also advises Tanenbaum’s Conflict Resolution program, which he led from 2010-2013. During that time, Clayton helped Tanenbaum to document its theory of change and establish a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system, and contributed to Peacemakers in Action, Vol. II, a forthcoming book of case studies in religious peacebuilding from Cambridge University Press. Clayton has held leadership roles with grassroots peacebuilding and development organizations, most recently with Sembrandopaz, where he contributed to the design and administration political empowerment and economic transformation projects for conflict-affected communities on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. He holds an MSc in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and an MPA from New York University. Clayton recently participated in the EIAP Global Advisory Council meeting in Istanbul, sharing ideas with other practitioners and thought leaders about how the field can better evaluate interreligious action for peace.