Step 7: Incorporating Learning into Work

If the evaluation is about learning that leads to change, then the lessons learned on gender and ICT issues should result in integrating gender or positive changes on gender in the project or initiative. These changes can happen in several ways:

• Change in Evaluation Practice
• Change in Gender Equality Practice
• Change in ICT Practice

Change in Evaluation Practice

Oftentimes, organisations practice evaluation as a simple activity to be implemented at the end of a project. On the contrary, for GEM, evaluation is an ongoing and evolving process. Subscribing to one of GEM’s core values with respect to evaluation is changing an organisation’s outlook and practice in conducting evaluations. Moving towards changing an outlook is done after finishing an evaluation exercise where tools and methods have been tested and findings established.

The questions below can help identify where the changes in the evaluation exercise can be implemented:

• Did you identify the intended users of your evaluation correctly? fail to include other users?
• What were the gaps in your evaluation questions, gender and ICT indicators, and overall evaluation plan?
• How effective were the methodologies that were used? Did you get a sufficient number of respondents and responses? How can you improve collecting data?
• What kind of results did the evaluation exercise yield? satisfactory? Can further and continued evaluation of your project/initiative yield results that can be used for other purposes? What were the unexpected results of your evaluation?
• Was the gender analysis of your data satisfactory? Did you uncover other gender and ICT issues in your initiative that need further study?

Honing a data-gathering strategy can be more effective if monitoring mechanisms for projects are put in place within an organisation. Look into practical and administrative needs and opportunities that allow continuous data gathering to assess gender and ICT issues. One such mechanism is keeping a monthly record of how community members use a telecentre, or tracking user statistics of your website. Another method is scheduling regular sessions or meetings with stakeholders or intended beneficiaries to monitor changes in gender relations and in their lives as a result of the project/initiative, such as annual check-ups with former trainees to assess how they continue to use the skills they have learned from the training workshop.

An important change in gender evaluation advocated by GEM is to incorporate a gender perspective in all evaluations of ICT initiatives where adoption of well-articulated core values is operationalised in an organisation. The GEM framework and guide can assist you in learning more about gender and ICT issues. As your understanding of the issues expands, you will be able to evolve ways of integrating them into your organisation’s goals, plans and practice. <!-- end of step-text -->