Services

Though I present my services below as separate, stand-alone activities, they are in reality often intertwined. My entry point with a client is often through evaluation and I then support follow-up reflection or activities such as strategic development and planning, team building or organizational assessment. I am most gratified in my work when I develop a long-term relationship with individuals or teams in an organization. At the same time, I love the challenge of getting pulled into the deep end: conducting a challenging short-term assignment that demands getting up to speed with complex issues overnight and having to think on my feet.

I provide the following services:

• Programme and project evaluation
• Organisational assessment
• Strategic planning support
• Facilitation of meetings, workshops and trainings

Services

Evaluation

I believe most in evaluations that are utilization-focused and seek to address the interests of all primary users from the start. In my evaluation work, I seek to understand the quality of process as much as impact and combine -- wherever possible and relevant -- participatory and learning approaches so as to enhance understanding and dialogue within an organization or between partners about achievements and challenges. I conduct external evaluations of often large scale national, regional or global initiatives and advise NGOs on how to design and implement their own monitoring and evaluation systems. Most of my evaluations involve organizations or networks that seek to influence legal and policy changes; changes in skills, attitudes and behaviors; or to empower minorities.

Strategic development and planning

Planning is the basis of any organization’s monitoring and evaluation system and therefore my knowledge and experience with evaluation inevitably inspires my strategy development and planning services. I don’t believe in always following state of the art methodologies but take from them what is useful and appropriate given the needs and stage of development an organization is at. I support both the design of new initiatives or help review and sharpen existing programme frameworks. I have supported organizations through an entire strategic planning process but also through a discrete stage of a project design phase.

Organizational assessment

When conducting an organizational assessment, I try to approach an organization holistically even if my assignment asks to look at one aspect of an organization’s operations. In doing so, I seek to understand an organization’s head (its principles and leading ideas), its heart (its values, culture and relationship) and its feet (the work the organization’s members really want to do). I also believe that sensitivity and understanding of the political, social and cultural context of an organization is paramount to any assessment.

Facilitation of meetings, workshops and trainings

Facilitation is a manifestation of leadership. As a facilitator I am primarily a compass, helping lead a group to achieve their own desired objectives. I often facilitate workshops as part of my evaluation and strategic planning work. I also regularly facilitate team meetings or workshops ranging from an end-of-year team review to gatherings that seek to resolve conflict or disagreements within a group.