| Author |
Message |
Liz Mwangi
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 10:50 am: | |
Hi,
We support a peacebuilding program and as we all know peacebuilding is very "tricky" in measuring.
I would like to develop a tool that one can use during a field visit that shows to what extent the program has performed in:
1. lobbying and advocating-challenging human rights abuses (domestic violence, drug abuse, child labor)
2.Are the village-based Civil Society Organizations aware and advocating for Human Rights?
Thank you
Elizabeth |
Wafa' Abdel Rahman
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 12:21 pm: | |
Dear Elizabeth,
Coming from a conflict background made me thank you for your question, which I never stood to answer and that is “is human rights advocacy a peace-building or not?”
In my understanding peace building was always about promoting a just peace and sustainable security based on human rights perspective. But advocating human rights abuses, this is for me is a policy formulation, laws and regulations supporting the respect for human rights and finally the culture that should be changed on the grassroots level.
Thus, the evaluation could be quantitative and qualitative and should tackle the different levels; 1. laws that have been passed and regulations that have been amended (of course there should be a measurement of the number of organizations involved, the meetings with legislatures, policy makers.. etc . 2. the implementation of those laws and regulations could be measured by reports on the abuses, complaints and the responsiveness of the system.
3. When it comes to culture, I guess it is difficult to be measured, but you are the only person who could tell if there has been any shift in the attitude and perspective of your constituency. You might use a case study, or the feedback of the groups you are working with.. etc.
By the way, I’m not familiar with the village based – civil society organizations, do you mean grassroots organizations? Or maybe community organizations?
I’m learning from this forum.. wish you luck
Wafa’
|
Liz Mwangi
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 01:10 pm: | |
Wafa,
Thank you very much for your answer.
Village based civil society organizations are the same as grassroots organizations (merry-go-round groups, Parents Teachers Associations, Catholic Men Associations, Village Council of Elders and so on). We use village as that is our administrative boundary for the projects.
Human Rights abuses are rampant in some areas of Kenya especially since some of them are entrenched in the cultures (like female genital mutilations, early marriages, domestic violence among others). Trying to change what people have been doing for years is an uphill task.
The trick is in using the village based CSOs and build their capacity to advocate for the change they want at the policy level or higher decision makers levels. It is working and one case in point is the compensation for the farmers who will be displaced by TIOMIN a company that will soon start mining TITANIUM on the Kenyan coast. The government increased their compensation tenfold and conducted an environmental impact as the farmers and CSOs had demanded.
Once again thank you and wish you all the best. |
John Williamson
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 11:16 pm: | |
Here's a potential resource:
The Evaluation of Conflict Resolution Interventions: Framing the State
of Play by Cheyanne Church & Julie Shouldice A pilot project seeking to
examine the current state and utilisation of evaluation in conflict
resolution interventions. The 1st part of the project consisted of a
literature review, calls for information and a series of field
interviews. That research resulted in the publication of this document.
The 2nd phase involved convening an international working group to
begin addressing the questions and challenges of conflict resolution
evaluation. http://www.comminit.com/st2003/sld-8452.html |
Mark Hammersley
Moderator
Username: Mark
Post Number: 67
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 07:05 pm: | |
The Policy & Evaluation Unit of UNU/INCORE (United Nations University's International Conflict Research Centre) mention a number of other resources on their web site:
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/home/policy/
See, in particular Conflict Resolution Evaluation: The State of the Art |
Marion Subah
Guest
| | Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2004 - 10:18 am: | |
AS we have all found out or are finding there are some aspects in peacebuilding that are quantitive, but peacebuilding is primarily qualitative. Therefore tools must be largely qualitative in nature. This means that qualitative tools ie, Focus group Discussions, must be used. These tools are develop after data gathering. For data gathering you have to use the informal listening survey and if you have used codes use them to gather specific information and be very detail and descriptive in stating present actions, atitudes, knowledge and skills. You must have a picture of what is, why and the source of knowledge. Than you develop obnjectives as to what the project would like to reinforced, changed or add. Your evalution tools will than be based on finding out to what extend the project reinforced, change or add to peacebuilding. The tool for monitoring is also largely qualitative and must outlined/list actions that will be carried out to follow up and ensured that objectives are met. Discusions,decision making, etc are very important. Remenber that this monitoring is also a type of quasi formative evaluation as well as an essential activity in meeting the project objectives and must include site visit and a lot of documentation(record keeping and reporting) of things that may not always seem significant. |
Alan Frisk
Member
Username: Afrisk
Post Number: 2
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 08:55 am: | |
Don't forget these classic resources:
Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA), by the Berghof Center, http://www.berghof-handbook.net and
Reflecting on Peace Practice (RPP), by CDA, the group that brought us 'Do No Harm', http://www.cdainc.com/rpp/ |
Peter Woodrow
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 04:42 pm: | |
Thanks to Alan Frisk for pointing you in the direction of the Reflecting on Peace Practice Project. You will find, in Confronting War, the RPP report issued last year, considerable discussion about how to measure the impacts of peacebuilding programs. We also make a distinction between impacts on the broader societal peace, for which we posit some generic "criteria of effectiveness"--and the much more specific, locally-determined "indicators" that would let you know whether you were having the effects (changes) you desired. Marion Subah's comments support that approach. We have some more recent tools that we are developing for workshop purposes that we can send along, if you are interested. Meanwhile, see the website Alan cited. Peter Woodrow, Co-Director, RPP. |
Hugo van Veghel
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 08:21 am: | |
Dear friends and colleagues, can I please urge you to think about qualitative indicators related to child behaviour in kindergarten? You want to know if you are succesfull in your peace activities? Go, sit in a kindergarten and listen to what these kids tell you. They are the mirror of what is happening in family life. 7 years after the end of the war in Croatia, people finaly admit that there is an exploding xenophobia in the kindergartens... thus there is no peace in the heart of families yet, there is no peace in the nation. The faculty of philosofy in Zagreb made a first research, now refining it... another year lost. Most (if not all) programs related to civil society and education DO NOT include work in kindergartens, and yet there you wil find the roots of tomorrow's society. Neglecting their signals is putting a heavy mortgage on all previous work. Looking forward to read your comments, Hugo |
A.v.d. Linde
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 08:02 am: | |
see: for practical and sound analysis: http://www.aepro.org/inprint/conference/fisher.html
and use the user friendly and field oriented Amnesty International's Monitoring and documenting human rights violations in Africa (in Kenya you can go to the Amnesty office in Nairobi that will work on Violence against women etc)....
These are most practical for your use in the field.
With kind regards, Ada van der Linde. |
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Programme Management - Gestion de Programmes