To ensure that evaluation findings actually inform the development and implementation of future security initiatives on violence against women, the following actions should be considered in presenting results and recommendations (OECD/ DAC, 2011):
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Present the evaluation in an accessible format: The language should be easy to understand and recommendations concrete (i.e. realistic actions) and prioritized to help guide policy-makers and programme designers.
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Invite key stakeholders, particularly survivors where feasible, to preview and respond to the evaluation before publication: The process is also important to help identify the most appropriate manner to present sensitive information (e.g. specific communities where police abuses have been reported) and should enable them to make suggestions and clarifications for consideration by the evaluation team, and will allow for greater ‘buy-in’ of evaluation findings.
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Explicitly note the responses required by various stakeholders: Recommendations should be developed to address the findings, specifically noting the steps to be taken by actors initiating the evaluation (e.g. donor, government body or civil society group) as well as the institutions being reviewed (e.g. ministries of defense, national police directorates, etc.), particularly noting on institutional obligations to respond or uphold specific policies and procedures, or practices by personnel.
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Encourage senior security actors, decision-makers and/or programme managers to publish a formal response to the evaluation and facilitate the development of an appropriate response. Institutional responses may detail the planned or potential actions of the relevant body and timeframe for implementation. These can be released jointly with a presentation of the evaluation findings and recommendations, and potentially integrated when the report is published. Institutional requirements for responding to evaluations should be reviewed and encouraged.
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Ensure that evaluation results inform future planning and programming: Whether evaluations are part of an ongoing programme or conducted at the closure of an initiative, the results should consider how the findings can have the widest reach beyond the specific intervention and where possible, present results to all stakeholders working on the issue to consider in their own work. For example, an evaluation of a pilot training programme in one district can be presented to the national police training academy to ensure lessons from the initiative can inform development of future pilots elsewhere). Evaluation teams should also advise how results can be fed into future planning phases as part of the evaluation process.
Key Tools
Handbook on Security System Reform: Supporting Security and Justice: (Section 10) Monitoring and Evaluation (Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, 2011). This section of the handbook is primarily for practitioners involved in the design, monitoring and evaluation of security sector reform programmes. The handbook provides a general introduction on the principles and purposes of monitoring and evaluation, how to monitor and evaluate security sector reform programmes, building on introductory guidance on M&E in the 2008 version of the handbook. Available in English.
Security Sector Reform Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation and Gender: Tool 11 in the Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit (Popovic, N, in eds. Megan Bastick and Kristin Valasek, 2008). This tool is for individuals responsible for security sector reform working within security institutions, national government and parliament, international/ regional organizations and donors, and civil society organizations. Part of a larger toolkit, the guide covers how to include a gender perspective in the different approaches and tools used for monitoring and evaluation of the sector. Available in Arabic; English; French; and Indonesian.
Performance Standards and Assessment Tool for police services addressing cases of violence against women (Philippine National Police, 2008). This tool is designed to generate data for monitoring and evaluating the service provider’s level of compliance to the Philippine Government’s anti-VAW policies. Data generated can also be used as a tool in setting priorities in planning, particularly for budgeting on gender issues. A full case study on this tool is available in the Legislation module. Available in English.
The Police That We Want: A Handbook for Oversight of Police in South Africa (Bruce, D. and Neild, R., Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 2005). This Handbook is a resource for people involved in police oversight in South Africa, although it may be adapted for use in other contexts, where reforms aim to bring policing in line with democratic principles. The Handbook identifies and discusses key measures relevant to evaluating police performance, and lists 39 key areas together with a checklist on how the indicators can be measured. The indicators are grouped according to five areas, and although they do not refer directly to violence against women, non-discrimination and human rights references can be further adapted for the issue. Available in English.