Action Areas of the Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium:

1. Developing Methodological Rigor: PEC members developed, tested and shared practical tools for evaluation; developed training modules and workshop resources; improved access to existing guides, articles, resources (PEC Online Field Guide and DM&E for Peace site); produced case studies on promising practices and collaborated on evaluation pilots. Mercy Corps led on development and testing of several practical tools together with colleagues in field offices. CDA led on the development of the Online Field Guide, brief working papers, DM&E training modules and other practical resources.
2. Improving the Culture of Evaluation and Shared Learning: Search for Common Ground organized and coordinated an online community of practice hosting hundreds of Thursday Talks and engaging hundreds of practitioners through a mentorship program. PEC members engaged with donors, practitioners and researchers at annual evaluation conference (AEA, EES), learning events and policy discussions to advocate for whole-of-field learning. PEC also expanded its reach by engaging practitioners in the Global South through workshops and cross-learning events.
3. Fostering the Use of Evidence to Influence Peacebuilding Policies: PEC compiled existing good practice and resources into Guiding Steps on Peacebuilding DME and produced guiding principles for peacebuilding donors. PEC members presented to USAID, US State Department, UK Stabilization Unit and other government donors on the importance of strengthening the evidence base and supporting improvements in M&E practices. Alliance for Peacebuilding and CDA gathered and reviewed available evidence violence reduction and reconciliation programs.

Results from the Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium

The culture of evaluation in peacebuilding HAS changed in the following ways:

• There is a greater acceptance of the need for monitoring & evaluation;
• There is less (overt) resistance to evaluation;
• There is more use of evaluative tools and methods and more experimentation with complexity-aware methods that are relevant for peacebuilding processes;
• The quality of evaluations is improving, although more organizations could be sharing their evaluations with others – an area where more progress is needed.

CDA’s learning products developed as part of the PEC consortium are listed below and the Online Field Guide which lives on DM&E for Peace is linked below as well.

CDA’s Engagements from 2011-2019

• What were the sources of impetus to engage in and improve evaluation practices?
• What were the barriers to more regular and higher quality evaluation?

CDA supported the development of a systems map to illustrate the dynamics of peacebuilding evaluation and the barriers and opportunities for improving practice.

The Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium was established in 2011 by several organizations including the Alliance for Peacebuilding, USIP, Mercy Corps, Search for Common Ground, and the American University/Center for Peacebuilding & Development. CDA joined as a member later, and CDA staff also served on the PEC’s International Advisory Group of peacebuilding evaluation experts. During three rounds of grants by the Carnegie Corporation (2011-13, 2014-17, 2017-19) the overall goals and major action areas (pillars) for the PEC remained the same but the activities were adapted and expanded to meet the changing and growing needs in the peacebuilding sector.

CDA’s engagements include:

Briefing Papers

Sector Reviews and Lesson Summaries

Resource Guides