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| | | Title | GUIDELINES FOR ADOPTING REPRODUCIBLE PRINCIPLES IN EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS IN AFRICA, Guide No.8 | | Author | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Subject | EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA | | Date of Publication | 2016 | | Publisher | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Number of Pages | 8 pages | | Language | English | | Geographical Coverage | Africa | | Keywords | Evaluation, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Online Archiving | | Abstract | Development interventions such as the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), at least to the year 2030 and its predecessor the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) play a crucial role in motivating world leaders to commit to global development. However, the success in achieving landmark initiatives like the SDGs, to a large extent will depend on country level ability to design, implement and evaluate the performance and achievement of initiatives aligned to the development intervention. The objectives of these guidelines are to a) define the reproducibility principle, b) discuss the various pieces of software that can facilitate the application of reproducibility principles in evaluation contexts, and c) propose the next steps for applying the reproducible principles in the evaluation of development interventions. This guide is based on a synthesis of existing literature and software packages to demonstrate how the reproducible principles can be used to facilitate effective assessment of the performance of development interventions across Africa. Using information from secondary sources, the paper provides a step-by-step approach for applying reproducible principles, delineates the key capacity requirements that can foster easy adoption and implementation of reproducible principles. The paper demonstrates that the reproducible principles can facilitate consistency in data generation, analysis and coherence in assessment of development performance and achievements of results over a period of time. It also underscores the potential of reproducible principles in improving the design, conduct and reliability of quantitative program evaluation and highlights some of the applicable softwares. In conclusion, the document alludes to the fact that, although reproducible principles have been around for a while, the concept has not taken root among evaluators. Findings from evaluation studies often lead to recommendations with direct policy implications. Therefore, pushing the reproducibility principles will change how practitioners approach program evaluations and forces them to systematically manage data collection processes, develop rules for archiving data before transforming it, sharing code used for data analysis, and developing and lodging pre-analysis plans before collecting and analyzing data. The main recommendations proffered are that there is a need to build capacities of members of the African Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results (AfCoP/MfDR) about the application of the reproducible principles. Furthermore, the paper suggests developing user friendly software that will facilitate the management of complex workflows, and educate AfCoP members and practitioners on how to explore, adopt and use such approaches and methodologies. | | Copyright Holder | African Community of Practice (AfCoP) | | Copyright URL | http://afrik4r.org/ | | Filesize | 634287 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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