Pushing boundaries: Advocacy evaluation and real‐time learning in an HIV prevention research advocacy coalition in sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Evaluation processes that facilitate learning among advocates must be nimble, creative, and meaningful while transcending putative performance and accountability management. This article describes the experience, lessons, and trajectory of one such approach, Simple, Participatory Assessment of Real Change (SPARC), that a transnational HIV prevention research advocacy coalition pilot‐tested in sub‐Saharan Africa. Inspired by the pioneering work of the outcome harvesting (OH) and participatory evaluation community, we recuperate advocates' centrality as storytellers, sense‐makers, and strategists in advocacy evaluation and describe how we recalibrated SPARC to meet their evaluation and learning needs. This article highlights the normative value of deliberative discourse in evaluation as it contributes to the interpretation of OH and the enrichment of the theory and practice of advocacy evaluation.

LGBTQ+ human rights evaluation in the global South: Lessons from evaluating Project ACT

“…The final visits to Jamaica and Zimbabwe were cancelled due to COVID‐19 travel restrictions. Patton's Principles‐Focused Evaluation (Patton, 2018) coupled with Wilson‐Grau's Outcome Harvesting (Wilson‐Grau, 2018) provided the primary evaluation frameworks because of their ability to accommodate the diversity of projects and contexts in the funded portfolio (see also Dasmarinas & Schlangen, 2021). In what remains of this article, we highlight key lessons for LGBTQ+ international evaluation based upon our experiences in Project ACT.…”

“…The types of power that these initiatives target and the entrenched nature of those facets of power guarantee these initiatives meet with fierce opposition. The evaluator will find it difficult to predict when and what change to expect, the level at which change might be observed, and how to assign value to the inevitable small steps forward and backward along the way (Dasmariñas & Schlangen, 2021; Garnder & Brindis, 2017; Krugman, 2011; Schlangen, 2014; Teles & Schmitt, 2011). Measuring the ability of citizens to claim their rights may prove especially difficult.…”