Monitoring and Evaluation in Thinking and Working Politically

Wednesday 11 December 2024, 15:00 GMT/10:00 EST

How can we tell if efforts to promote change through politically informed approaches are working?

Join the conversation, as we reflect on how those engaged in such efforts go about monitoring and evaluating TWP initiatives in ways that appreciate the complexities involved.

Our starting point is that this is not only a methodological challenge, but also one that requires connecting advances in monitoring, evaluation and learning for TWP and other complex problems with the operational realities, opportunities and constraints set by the organisations and systems that development practitioners and M&E specialists inhabit (including silos across practices and networks).

We are convening colleagues to share insights on the following questions:

  • In practice, what kinds of stories are development practitioners telling about the difference TWP can make in helping to, among other things, analyse contexts, identify entry points, prioritise  engagement, and use that knowledge to manage relationships and/or foster coalitions for change?
  • How are practitioners using those insights to do their work better and mainstream TWP principles within their own organisations and in their engagement with other partners.

Flor is a consultant, thought leader, and systems convener with over 20 years’ experience in working to embed evidence and learning governance and development strategies and programming from the global to the local levels. Florencia has led impact and learning work at the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability, Transparency and Accountability Initiative and collaborated with Open Society Foundations (OSF), Pact, and World Vision, among others, introducing adaptive management, political economy approaches, and applying portfolio/systems lenses to Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and research. She also designs and delivers innovative upskilling activities through act4delivery. Florencia has a PhD from North-western University in Political Science and Government and is a Member of the Independent Evaluation Panel of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Collaborating Researcher of Grupo Politeia, University of the State of Santa Catarina. https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-florencia-guerzovich-9b3ab74/ https://medium.com/@florcig


Tom is a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) consultant with 18 years’ experience. He is on the editorial advisory board of Evaluation and is an Honorary Associate at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex. He was a Governance Advisor for CARE International (2012–2018) for Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and a Learning Advisor on the Partnership to Engage, Learn and Reform (PERL) program (2020–2021) in Nigeria. He led the principles strand in the global MEL contract for the UK government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and recently led several evaluations for the International Budget Partnership (IBP), World Vision, the World Bank, and has a current evaluation on anti-corruption for the Open Society Foundations (OSF). He has a PhD in Development Planning from University College London (UCL), with a thesis on the political economy of social protection in Bolivia. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-aston-consulting/https://thomasmtaston.medium.com/