by Mahran Alhayek, Melissa Harris and Sarah Nijholt As the World Health Organisation declared COVID as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, a group of staff from Oxfam, its partner organization and consultants were preparing to conduct interviews with women affected by ongoing conflicts and the presence of ISIS in Kirkuk Governorate, in Iraq, as part of Oxfam’s Effectiveness Review series. We put the …
Who is asking whom? Does it matter?
In this blog we look at data from DRC, Zambia and the Occupied Palestinian Territory to see how interviewer and interviewee characteristics, especially gender, affect household-level information. Gender is one important factor shaping inequalities of power at play across scales, in private and public spheres and across contexts. In carrying out quantitative impact evaluations at Oxfam, we have been working to shed light …
Reaching another layer: exploring the benefits of the A4EA research programme
I joined Oxfam in Myanmar in 2017 as a research coordinator to lead overall project management and coordination between researchers in Myanmar and researchers in the UK for the innovative Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) project. A4EA is an international research programme, implemented by a consortium which Oxfam is part of, led by The Institute of Development Studies (IDS). …
Counting care: Everything you need to know about the new Household Care Survey toolkit
‘What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get seen’. I’ve heard this phrase so many times but never has it felt truer than when it comes to unpaid care and domestic work. Unpaid care and domestic work is the vital work that keeps our societies and economies ticking, keeping us healthy, nourished and nurtured and keeping our homes clean and tidy. But …
Podcast: Coronavirus and Web Data Analysis
Social media has the potential to profoundly influence the way society works. Social media has been used for understanding crowd sizes from Instagram posts and to analyse hate speech and to understand presidential elections. Or more recently to improve our understanding of the lived realities of women and girls. So, how can we gather data from social media platforms and …
The journey and challenges in measuring sustainable water in Oxfam’s impact evaluations with the HWISE Network
“It’s easy to see that water is an issue the world over. Either too much, too little or unsafe” How can we effectively measure sustainable water? How can we understand the impact and effectiveness of our work in relation to water insecurity? For World Water Day 2020, The Real Geek Series discusses how research, measurement and evaluation are essential tools …
Podcast: Highlights of Oxfam’s Impact Evaluation of Cash for Work activities in the Za’atari camp in Jordan
[buzzsprout episode=’2664862′ player=’true’] For people living in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan there are few legally accessible work opportunities in and outside the camp. The Cash for Work activities currently being carried out in Za’atari provides income, increases household wealth, teaches skills and improves well-being. But how effective is the intervention? As part of our Real Geek Series, Franziska …
Podcast: GDPR and the right to privacy in practice for impact evaluations
[buzzsprout episode=’2665939′ player=’true’] What is GDPR and Oxfam’s Responsible Data Policy? How does GDPR affect the way we collect data when carrying out monitoring and evaluations? Following the recent publication of the Going Digital report on GDPR, two of our regular “Real Geekers“, Jaynie Vonk, Global Advisor on Impact Evaluations and Simone Lombardini, Impact and Evaluation lead, discuss the implementation, …
Podcast: How to measure resilience capacities – Experience from Oxfam’s impact evaluations
[buzzsprout episode=’2559154′ player=’true’] Oxfam defines resilience as ‘the ability of women and men to realize their rights and improve their wellbeing despite shocks, stresses and uncertainty’ (The future is a choice, Jeans et al., 2016). So… Can resilience be “measured”?! Well, we have been trying since 2012! Inspired by John Twigg’s (2009) characteristics approach, our measurement approach relies on identifying …
The good and the ‘not so good’ of our experiences with SenseMaker
When we purchased a license for the SenseMaker research method in early 2017 (a proprietary data collection and analysis software), the excitement in our more “geeky” teams was palpable. SenseMaker is a research method inspired by the Cynefin complexity framework, which is known for helping make sense of, and categorizing messy or ambiguous situations that require some sort of decision-making. …