The Learning for Gender Integration (LGI) Initiative’s evaluation team in Nicaragua

 

As a member of ACDI/VOCA’s gender team—and throughout my career—I’ve conducted formative research and evaluations in many places. I’ve enjoyed helping projects understand why certain project interventions work well and how they can improve their impact on participants.

But the issues projects faced were often too complex or interrelated to prove a clear cause and effect relationship. How did I know positive gender outcomes resulted from specific project interventions? What if project participants just told me gender roles had improved because they knew it was what I want to hear to make the project continue? In short, I needed better methods!

ACDI/VOCA project participant Balvino takes on household chores
Balvino talks about how he takes on more household chores.

Through a Program Improvement Award, funded by USAID’s Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Program and secured by Lutheran World Relief (LWR), I was invited to help conduct a final evaluation of LWR’s Learning for Gender Integration (LGI) Initiative in Nicaragua. Cultural Practice led the design of the evaluation using two, participatory methodologies to capture changes in food security and gender inequalities: Most Significant Change (MSC) and Photovoice (PV).

I soon learned that MSC is a bottom-up process of generating narratives of change brought about by a project, whereas PV is a participatory action research (PAR) method of empowering participants to identify and solve problems in their communities using photography and oral narratives.

ACDI/VOCA project participant Balvino uses a camera
Balvino uses a camera for the first time.

In Nicaragua, I watched as Balvino Gonzales, a project participant, pursed his lips in deep concentration as he fiddled with his camera. He would later tell me it was his (and many others’) first time using one. Balvino’s vibrant photos and engaging stories brought me into his world and helped me understand the pride he felt in the changes he and his wife had made because of the project’s gender sensitization, like him taking on more household chores to allow his wife to expand her fishery.

 

ACDI/VOCA participant Elida tells her story of empowerment.
Elida tells her story of empowerment.

Another powerful moment occurred when Elida Ochoa, a project participant, pointed to a self-portrait of her looking squarely and defiantly into the camera. The photograph symbolized how far she had come—from a disengaged, angry person to an empowered leader. Elida beautifully described the messy, complex, and non-linear process of what becoming empowered looked like for her, using the self-portrait to express herself. ADDAC, the local implementer of the LGI Initiative, selected Elida’s story as one of the most significant changes they witnessed. At this, Elida beamed quietly, and I sat back in disbelief at how seamlessly the overlapping perspectives contributed to an equitable analysis for the evaluation.

Despite my preparation, I did not realize the truly transformative nature of these interactive methodologies until I saw them in practice. As gender practitioners, our work is often characterized by complex and non-linear changes to power structures to create more equal opportunities and benefits among men, women, boys, and girls. To measure how we are doing, we need evaluation tools that embrace complexity and reinforce equity.

Now I can’t wait to apply these new tools to ACDI/VOCA projects. What other tools do you use to promote equitable, participatory, and complexity-aware program evaluations?

Morgan Mercer

Morgan Mercer is a director focused on gender and youth with 12 years of experience in research methods, gender integration, women’s empowerment, and positive youth development. At ACDI/VOCA, she provides technical guidance to our market systems projects, leads stakeholder learning sessions, guides the development of technical strategies and tools, builds the capacity of partners and individuals in gender and youth integration, and leads analysis and research. Morgan co-authored two Leveraging Economic Opportunities analyses — one on youth engagement, leading research in Liberia and Nepal, and one on women’s empowerment. She currently leads research on gender integration among 20 USAID Bureau for Food Security-supported research investments through our Advancing Women’s Empowerment program. Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA in 2014, Morgan conducted mid-term evaluations for CARE in Mali and Tanzania, packaged and disseminated HIV prevention interventions for AED, FHI 360, and Danya International, and conducted health research in Madagascar for Emory University and Partners in Health. She holds a BA in political science from the University of South Carolina and an MA in development practice from Emory University. Morgan received the Presidential Award from ACDI/VOCA in 2019 for support of our USAID Transforming Market Systems Activity in Honduras.

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