Women monitoring women: Participatory monitoring and evaluation of women’s empowerment organizations funded by private-sector and international aid donors in post-conflict countries
Submission Type
Event
Faculty Advisor
William Munro
Expected Graduation Date
2019
Location
Room E105, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Start Date
4-13-2019 10:00 AM
End Date
4-13-2019 11:00 AM
Disciplines
Education
Abstract
This research examines how the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches of a private foundation and international donor agency shape the rhetoric and the contextual setting in which women’s empowerment organizations operate. Current scholarly literature highlights the failings of women’s empowerment indexes used in M & E, specifically the difficulty in achieving inclusive participation for women due to the exclusion of local stakeholders from shaping the measurable indicators and ultimate priorities. The differences in the implementation of various women’s empowerment indexes has been linked to the concept of political accountability and motivations of donors. Projects financed by the Ford Foundation and USAID are selected as case studies because of the donors’ instrumental role in supporting women’s empowerment programs and their participation in international conferences in the 1990’s, which signal a shift in focus on women’s empowerment within the development sector. To understand the M&E approaches used by these donors, the research examines this shift in the 1990’s in the development discourse, which stresses aid effectiveness and a need to rethink monitoring and evaluation. This allows for a comparison of the impact of the Ford Foundation’s and USAID’s interpretations of evaluation approaches on the language and practice of women’s empowerment organizations.
Women monitoring women: Participatory monitoring and evaluation of women’s empowerment organizations funded by private-sector and international aid donors in post-conflict countries
Room E105, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
This research examines how the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches of a private foundation and international donor agency shape the rhetoric and the contextual setting in which women’s empowerment organizations operate. Current scholarly literature highlights the failings of women’s empowerment indexes used in M & E, specifically the difficulty in achieving inclusive participation for women due to the exclusion of local stakeholders from shaping the measurable indicators and ultimate priorities. The differences in the implementation of various women’s empowerment indexes has been linked to the concept of political accountability and motivations of donors. Projects financed by the Ford Foundation and USAID are selected as case studies because of the donors’ instrumental role in supporting women’s empowerment programs and their participation in international conferences in the 1990’s, which signal a shift in focus on women’s empowerment within the development sector. To understand the M&E approaches used by these donors, the research examines this shift in the 1990’s in the development discourse, which stresses aid effectiveness and a need to rethink monitoring and evaluation. This allows for a comparison of the impact of the Ford Foundation’s and USAID’s interpretations of evaluation approaches on the language and practice of women’s empowerment organizations.