The methodological approach to measure shifts in power in favour of women in ActionAid’s programmes Francesca D’Emidio – ActionAid Liisa Kytola – ActionAid Eva Otero – Leitmotiv Social Consultants May 2017

Contents Context: Why did we do it? Aim of the work Process of the evaluation Methodological principles Tools for data collection Challenges Conclusions

ActionAid’s new strategy ‘Action for Global Justice’ Shifts in power Visible, hidden and invisible power Measurement of change Learning Contextualizing the strategy

2016: getting ready for the new strategy The key questions What shifts in power are we working on and achieving? What does the change look like? How can we measure it in a practical and functional way? The initiatives Evaluation on shifts in power in Cambodia and Rwanda Toolkit to measure shifts in power Meta-review about shifts in power Evaluation on shifts in power in Guatemala Recomendation for the implementation of the new strategy Integration in programme design and implementation

Key questions To what extent has power shifted in favour of women as a result of our work on livelihoods and access and control over natural resources (NR) and of our work on women’s rights (WR) as a standalone? Livelihoods and NR: to what extent have we contributed to shifting power in favour of women in our work on livelihoods and NR? WRs: to what extent have we contributed to shifting power in favour of women in our work on GBV and economic justice? How do we measure the change in shifts in power?

The evaluation process Step 1 ActionAid National Office - Introduction ActionAid National Office – Theory of Change Step 2 Partner organization – Theory of Change and preparations Step 3 Leaders – Changes in their lives Leaders – Preparation for the facilitation Step 4 Leaders and groups – What has changed in each community Leaders and groups – How the change happened Step 5 Leaders – Thinkshop – analysing the change Step 6 Other actors – Triangulation Discussion on the prelominary findings with the partner Discussion on the prelominary findings with ActionAid National Office

Methodological Principles Participation, Participation, Participation! Learning exercise Evaluation team external-internal Data collection Translation where appropriate Documentation Analysis with leaders and team Flexibility Use of tools to focus the discussion www.123.com

Key focus of the evaluation The changes in the lives of women Changes at different levels (personal, household, community, regional, national) Shifts in power: visible, invisible, individual y colective The changes in ActionAid, the partner and other relevant actors The factors that contributed to the change The contribution of ActionAid and the partner Linkages between the different power dimensions and the factors influencing these

Methodology

Social values and norms Methodology Visible Invisible Individual Collective WITHIN TO OVER WITH Control over income Access to services Policy Influence Legal Frameworks Social values and norms Knowledge, capacity, skills Confidence and self-esteem

Tools – Community Maps Identifying spaces of power in the community

Tools – Power Tree Indentifying the expressions of power

Identifying how the change happened Tools – Timelines Identifying how the change happened

Challenges Lost in translation ‘what is power?’ Note taking Mapping of power structures Choreography – management of multiple processes The structure of the evaluation Inception trip – prep work Dissemination of the findings Overstating ActionAid’s contribution Understanding how the change happened Interviews and engaging other actors Cultural context

Conclusions Learning Programme learning Learning about the evaluation approach Team work Contextualizing Documentation Analysis and interpretation of the information

Thanks!