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Guidehouse is a proud sponsor and exhibitor at the American Evaluation Association's Evaluation 2024.
Evaluation 2024 will bring together the evaluation community with the goal of uplifting new and emerging perspectives in the field, encouraging all evaluators to bring forth new ideas, practices, and creative approaches to evaluation. Through peer-to-peer learning, attendees can expect to come away from the event having contributed to shaping the future of the evaluation space.
Guidehouse keeps our clients' mission objectives top of mind with every engagement. We utilize industry best practices and versatile techniques to help agencies and organizations integrate, adapt, and evolve their critical programs, policies, and systems. This combination of a 360-degree view, past and current experiences, and leveraging of current best practices in management consulting helps us to solve our clients' most complex challenges and advance their missions.
October 24, 2024 | 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. PST | Portland Ballroom 253
As evaluators, we often enter new spaces and evaluate frontiers both familiar and unfamiliar. Yet, what happens when evaluators enter spaces where our identities force us to earn respect, prove competence, and adapt behaviors to effectively evaluate programs and inform policies? For female, civilian evaluators, this scenario is a common reality in the security assistance field, which operates within military spaces and institutions largely dominated by male-identifying actors. This perpetuates the perennial challenge of “being allowed entry” to culture nuances and information necessary for effective evaluation. In this lecture, participants will learn about the multifaceted challenges and unique advantages inherent of the female civilian evaluator experience within the male-dominated military environment. Drawing from decades of collective experience in brokering relationships and navigating evaluations in such “closed spaces”, the presenters will share their best practices in opening those spaces and issue calls to action for relevant parties in the security assistance domain. This presentation will transcend conventional evaluation discourse by addressing the complexities of the these dynamics and delineating the shared responsibilities in fostering an inclusive and respectful environment conducive to the work of female evaluators in such contexts. While the primary focus of this presentation is on the female experience within male-dominated spaces, it also acknowledges the complexities of gender identity and fluidity within these contexts, thereby further amplifying voices and promoting equity in evaluation practice.
Speakers:
October 24, 2024 | 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. PST | D135-D136
Understanding the significance of data is crucial as it serves as a strategic compass for optimizing resources, enhancing effectiveness, and achieving desired outcomes of programs, initiatives, and policies. Conversely, the absence of data and ineffective evaluation practices can lead to decision-making that is detrimental to the target populations we aim to help or issue areas we aim to address. To illustrate this, we will explore several real-world case studies, including violence prevention and public health programs. For example, we will delve into the "Scared Straight" violence prevention program, which was implemented for over 30 years despite data demonstrating its harmful outcomes on at-risk youth.
This raises the following questions: Why do we persist in developing and investing in programs despite evidence demonstrating their ineffectiveness and harmful impact on target groups? And what strategies can be employed to address this pressing issue?
This presentation will discuss five strategies to promote data-driven decision-making and help foster a culture where data is not just received but actively sought and effectively utilized. Addressing biases is the first strategy that will be discussed. Identifying and addressing biases is crucial because bias leads us to interpret data that may not accurately reflect reality or provide a complete picture of a situation. Certain biases even cause us to seek out or disproportionately value information that confirms our knowledge and experiences rather than considering all available evidence equitably, further impeding the use of data in decision-making.
Speaker: Jessica Baby, Senior Consultant, Defense & Security, Guidehouse
October 25, 2024 | 1:30 - 2:00 p.m. PST | Exhibit Hall A
While we can agree amplifying the voices of vulnerable individuals is important, it is critical for veteran and emerging evaluators alike to discuss and align on how to do it respectfully and safely, and when to walk away from direct engagement. The safety of participants and evaluators/enumerators should always be prioritized over data collection needs in evaluation; however, translating this principle into practice requires navigating many complex factors. For example, both local and global disruptions have spurred many evaluators to pivot to remote approaches in recent years, which can present additional challenges for the engagement of vulnerable individuals. This session will help evaluators from all backgrounds unpack the concept of “Do No Harm” and explore example discussions, considerations, and frameworks we have used with clients when deciding if and how to directly engage vulnerable individuals. During the first half of the session, we will share insights from past experiences working with U.S. State Department and USAID partners to develop tailored approaches for assessing context, recruiting additional experts, developing engagement protocols and criteria for generating participant contact lists, weighing in-person vs. remote data collection, and importantly, determining an alternative path if risks appear too high. In the second half of the session, we will facilitate a dialogue and invite attendees to share their own experiences engaging vulnerable groups in evaluation, including pitfalls to avoid, lessons learned, and personal successes.
Speakers:
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