Projects

Evaluation: International Women’s Media Foundation, Africa Program (2000)

Project Description:
ENCOMPASS was engaged by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) to conduct an evaluation of its Africa Women’s Media Center based in Senegal, West Africa. The IWMF’s major donor required the evaluation as a way of measuring the project’s impact on women journalists and their efforts at professional advancement.

Methodologies and Activities:
ENCOMPASS designed and conducted an in-depth evaluation of the IWMF’s Africa Women’s Media Center (its programs and services that provide support, training, and networking support to African women in media).

The methodology featured an appreciative evaluation approach that began by working in collaboration with the IWMF leadership and staff to design an evaluation methodology and questions appropriate for various cultures and that could be applied through a variety of mechanisms. These questions were used to design appreciative interview protocols for use in one-on-one interviews, workshop settings and on the Internet. The effective use of Internet technology resulted in a significantly more cost-effective evaluation.

Accomplishments/Impact:
ENCOMPASS designed an innovative evaluation process that enabled the organization to assess the impact of a short-term, but large scale project and was successful in creating the groundwork for institutionalizing the program. ENCOMPASS used an Appreciative Evaluation approach which created the capacity for new learning by the organization, documented best practices, and generated useful data for decisions about future directions. The evaluation results generated new energy with the project leaders and attracted new commitments and leadership to strengthening the presence of the IWMF in Africa.

In a 2002 follow-up assessment of the impact of this evaluation approach, the IWMF Executive Director and staff reported that the evaluation results had a great impact on the IWMF, and that they had made “dramatic changes in the leadership of the AWMC by moving to African management of the project well in advance of the planned transition to African leadership – one element that has contributed to the sustainability of the program.

This evaluation, and the ENCOMPASS appreciative evaluation approach, was featured in the National Evaluation Association’s journal, New Directions in Evaluation, January 2004.