Social impacts and feedback loops: a new framework for evaluating social protection
Dr. Stephen Devereux and Dr. Keetie Roelen,
In this seminar, we present a new research framework for evaluating social protection programmes that moves beyond the conventional focus on quantifiable outcomes. It considers programmes’ social impact and explicitly incorporates perceptions, opinions and experiences of participants and non-participants. Two key feedback loops are highlighted. First is the direct consequence of programme processes and their implications for intended impacts on social dynamics. The second feedback loop is a learning mechanism – to incorporate the perspectives of participants and affected non-participants into improved design and implementation of the cash transfer programme. An ongoing evaluation of a pilot social cash transfer programme in Tigray, northern Ethiopia provides a practical illustration.
About the speaker
Stephen Devereux is a research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, UK. He is a development economist who works on food security and social protection, mainly in Africa. He has led mixed-methods evaluations of social protection programmes in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. His recent publications include ‘Social Protection in Africa’ (Edward Elgar, 2009), co-authored with Frank Ellis and Philip White, and ‘Social Protection for Africa’s Children’ (Routledge, 2011), co-edited with Sudhanshu Handa and Douglas Webb. Keetie Roelen is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and a member of the Centre for Social Protection in Brighton, UK. She is a development economist by training and her current research interests include the dynamics of (child) poverty, social protection and the linkages between child protection and social protection. Keetie has worked with many international organisations such as UNICEF, World Bank and UNDP, performing research and policy advice work in South East Asia, Southern and Eastern Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.
Venue: conference room
Date: 29 November 2012
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
