EVALUATION NETWORKING AND LAUNCHING UKRAINIAN EVALUATION SOCIETY IN UKRAINE

1. EVALUATION NETWORKING AND LAUNCHING UKRAINIAN EVALUATION SOCIETY IN UKRAINE Iryna Kravchuk National Academy of Public Administration Office of the President of Ukraine irene_kravchuk@yahoo.co.uk

2. Aim of the presentation • to receive feedback and advice from participants of the conference • to check the feasibility of the idea and concept • to identify key factors of success and possible challenges • to find supporters, allies and partners for cooperation

3. Vision: Desirable Role of Evaluation in Ukraine • Easily understood by civil servants, experts and NGOs • Flourishing evaluation culture • Established at all levels of government • Public programs has special budget item for evaluation activities • A lot of trainings are offered • Strong influential evaluation network

4. Dream: Ukrainian Evaluation Society • Legally registered association • 20-30 people at the beginning, up to 40-50 after several years • Friendly climate for professional development via exchange of experience and workshops • Society develops terminology and methodology, provides trainings • Society stimulates evaluation demand

5. Groups potentially interested in evaluation: • Donors, foundations and international organizations commissioning evaluation of their projects and programs • CSO’s conducting monitoring and evaluation of public policy and their own projects • Civil servants who are responsible for evaluation activities in public sector, in particular in the area of policy analyses, strategic planning, program budgeting and law-making • Researchers who has academic interest towards evaluation as a analytical tool, tool of good governance or part of public policy analyses

6. Step 1. FB Group “Ukrainian Evaluation Society” (04.07.2011) • 21 people interested in evaluation: representatives of consultancies, foundations, NGOs and academia • Important at the beginning: informal networking and consolidating expert community in order to develop common vision on the future • When mature enough network may become the basis for Ukrainian Evaluation Society • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001892507244#!/groups/Ukr.evaluationsociety/

7. The tasks of informal network: • cooperation of persons, interested in development of evaluation • sharing information, ideas and experience in the evaluation domain • development of evaluation theory, methodology and practice in Ukraine • support of use of evaluation in public and private sector • development of evaluation as a good governance tool supporting transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency of public administration • cooperation with international expert networks and associations of other states

8. Experience of Slovakia, Romania and Poland Interviews of 3 heads of evaluation societies • Dagmar Gombitova (Slovak Evaluation Society, Slovakia) • Roxana Michalache (EvalRom, Romania) • Maciej Szalaj (Polish Evaluation Society)

9. Lessons from 3 countries: Challenges: Lack of understanding what “evaluation” is and what it is good for Human and financial resources Success factors: Evaluation demand from public sector Strong championship from the top politics supporting evaluation culture Professional, active and honest members

10. Suggested types of activities of informal network in Ukraine: • Sharing information and publications • Conducting evaluations • Workshops, seminars, trainings, round tables and conferences • Sharing experience and cooperation with experts, institutions and organizations • Research, expertise and consulting • Advocacy activity on enhancing evaluation capacity of government and non-governmental organizations

11. Why it should be interesting for potential members ? • Access to updated information in Ukraine and in the world at one place (it would be desirable in the future to develop the web-page) • Access to the larger data-base of evaluators in Ukraine • Chance to develop common vision on certain issues • Opportunity to learn from each other • Stronger position in advocacy activities and evaluation culture development in public sector

12. Potential Resources for UES • People are the most important • Information (FB group, web-page in the future) • Financial resources (membership fees in the future, and projects supporting community development)

13. Next steps To identify all interested experts, continue networking and form professional community On-line and live brainstorming on vision, mission and activities IDEA: joint training or study visit for the members of network. It would facilitate networking and start of cooperation between members. Involve key stakeholders supporting evaluation culture in Ukraine (donors, international organizations, civil society, government)

14. Thank you for attention !

15. EVALUATION NETWORKING AND LAUNCHING UKRAINIAN EVALUATION SOCIETY IN UKRAINE Iryna Kravchuk National Academy of Public Administration Office of the President of Ukraine irene_kravchuk@yahoo.co.uk