Greetings! We are Hippolyt Pul from the Institute for Peace and Development in Tamale, Ghana and Carlisle Levine from BLE Solutions in Arlington, Virginia, USA. We are dedicated to using monitoring, evaluation, and learning to ensure that power and ownership are in the hands of those most affected by or proximate to a situation, event, or initiative.
Growing interest in partnerships between funders and small and solo local evaluation firms
We are excited to see that funders, as part of prioritizing equity and local ownership, are increasingly valuing working with small and solo local evaluation firms that are grounded in the contexts in which funders work and have a deep understanding of the people with whom funders partner. Increasingly, funders recognize that these firms are uniquely positioned to lead evaluations that funders and participants alike find relevant, meaningful, accurate, and useful.
Yet, funders’ contracting practices can make it difficult for them to get the most out of small and solo local evaluation firms’ distinctive capacities and positioning. Often, funders do not know how to find small and solo local evaluation firms; their selection and contracting processes can be onerous for small and solo local evaluation firms; or their payment schedules can create undue burdens for such firms.
We recognize that, while these challenges are real, they are also surmountable. We respond to them in our October 2023 publication On Equity in Contracting with Small and Solo Local Evaluation Firms: An Open Letter to Funders (as well as an executive brief), which highlights the unique strengths of small and solo local evaluation firms, outlines the challenges they face in working with funders, and provides practical suggestions for contracting and funding their work. We are thrilled to report that a few funders are already finding our publication useful!
Rad Resources
Building on our open letter, we seek to work with funders, other evaluation commissioners, large and small evaluation firms, and especially, small and solo local evaluation firms and evaluators to address existing contracting challenges and strengthen partnerships. This year, we will…
- Host a series of webinars, present at conferences, and publish blogs and articles to raise awareness about how funders and small and solo local evaluation firms and evaluators can most effectively work together. We envision webinars and publications that focus on particular parts of that collaboration, such as the selection process or how to handle intellectual property. Others might focus on relationships among different entities, such as large and small evaluation firms and how their partnerships can be most mutually beneficial.
- Host speed dating sessions, during which funders and other evaluation commissioners can meet more small and solo local evaluation firms and evaluators. We will also point to websites that house databases of small and solo local evaluation firms and evaluators.
- Build a coalition of evaluators and funders working in different ways toward the same or similar ends, so that we can amplify each other’s work.
We look forward to our work ahead and to partnering with funders, other evaluation commissioners, and evaluators in it! If you would like to join us, please let us know, by completing this form. Thank you!
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