The 22nd Event of the Vienna Evaluation Network took place on Thursday, May 12, 2022, 4-5.30pm CET

Topic: Inclusive evaluation for gender equality: Challenges and opportunities in ensuring inclusiveness in remote evaluations

by guest speakers Andrea Berg, Heike Friedhoff & Anita Leutgeb

View or download the slides (PDF) here

Unequal economic and social policies, the impact of climate change, and the current pandemic all are contributing to increasing inequalities, especially gender inequalities, leaving some of the most vulnerable groups behind. Information and communications technologies are also creating both new opportunities as well as risks and challenges. Remote evaluations and digital divide add to the contextual complexity. Therefore, the question of inclusiveness and access of the most vulnerable groups becomes even more important. On the other hand, remote evaluations also offer the opportunity to share knowledge and develop joint evaluation designs with local evaluators.

During the event we will present and discuss the methodological approach we selected to evaluate the evolvement and embeddedness of gender equality of partner organizations of Bread for the World and their target groups in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caucasus. We will also share the challenges we faced and solutions we found to make this evaluation as inclusive as possible under the current circumstances and considering other constraints out of the evaluator’s control.

Andrea Berg holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute for Development Research and Development Policy of the Ruhr University Bochum. She is a certified systemic organizational development coach and a certified fundraising professional. Dr. Berg has been working at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and in leadership positions with global human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. She has a sound knowledge of strategic consulting, project management, and evaluation with a focus on human rights, gender, and diversity over the past 20 years. Dr. Berg teaches “Project development and project management” and “Campaigning and awareness raising” at the Leuphana University Lueneburg.

Heike Friedhoff, ethnologist and educator, looks back on over 20 years of experience in international development cooperation with a focus on Latin America and Africa. She has been working as an independent consultant for the last eight years in Brazil, Mozambique and Kenya. Her focus is on good governance, gender and women’s rights, as well as on participatory and impact-oriented planning, monitoring and evaluation. Heike is an activist of the feminist movement since 2005 and supports a community-based women´s rights network in Central Mozambique. She was part of the evaluation team evaluating the gender embeddedness in partner organizations of Bread for the World.

Anita Leutgeb works as an independent monitoring, evaluation, research and learning consultant (anitaleutgeb.at). She has a particular focus on participatory methods, impact orientation and utilization focus in planning and evaluation, effective communication of evaluation results as well as facilitation of learning from evaluations within organisations. Anita has provided consultancy and training services for non-governmental, governmental, and multilateral organisations covering about 50 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia&Pacific and Europe. She has worked across different sectors (advocacy for social change projects, migration, gender equality, etc.). Anita Leutgeb holds a MSc in Managing Rural development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a Mag.phil. in History and Social Studies, Romance and German philology from the University of Innsbruck, is a certified project and knowledge manager, and works in 6 languages.