"Evaluation (or assessment) of impact is generally regarded as an essential part of the project cycle, and is already well known and widely used in many disciplines - for example, environmental and social sciences, social psychology - and there is increasing evidence of its application to agricultur
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al research. The same pressures as are being felt in agricultural research apply in agricultural information: new technology, in the form of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is increasing the ability to access, collect, process and generate information, but there is also pressure to justify investment, and to demonstrate results (benefits). However, while the 'information/knowledge' culture may be burgeoning due to new ICTs, neither the methodology nor the culture of information impact studies is yet fully developed. There are as yet few methodologies and applications relating to information management in developing countries, and even fewer which have been or could be applied specifically to agricultural information management. This selective review seeks to engender wider knowledge, acceptance and application of evaluation in the field of agricultural information management by showing how it has been approached in other disciplines, in agricultural research, and most recently in information science and management, with some key examples relating to information management in developing countries. Finally, to give some indication of how it works in practice, some recent examples as applied to information management in developing countries are summarised as case studies." (CTA Website Sept. 11 2007)
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"Entertainment-education is the process of designing and implementing an entertainment program to increase audience members' knowledge about a social issue, create more favorable attitudes, and change their overt behaviors regarding the social issue. The results of a field experiment in Tanzania to
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measure the effects of a long-running entertainment-education radio soap opera, Twende na Wakati (Let's Go with the Times), on knowledge, attitudes, and adoption of human immuno deficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention behaviors are presented. Multiple independent measures of effects and the experimental design of this study confer strong internal and external validity regarding the results of this investigation. The effects of the radio program in Tanzania include (1) a reduction in the number of sexual partners by both men and women, and (2) increased condom adoption. The radio soap opera influenced these behavioral variables through certain intervening variables, including (1) self-perception of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, (2) self-efficacy with respect to preventing HIV/AIDS, (3) interpersonal communication about HIV/AIDS, and (4) identification with, and role modeling of, the primary characters in the radio soap opera." (Abstract)
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"Este manual intenta proporcionar a los administradores de proyectos y a los analistas de políticas las herramientas necesarias para evaluar el impacto de los proyectos. Está destinado a lectores con conocimientos generales de estadísticas. Para algunos de los métodos estadísticos más profundo
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s analizados, el lector es remitido a la literatura técnica sobre el tema. En el Capítulo 1 se presenta una visión general de los conceptos y métodos, en el Capítulo 2 se analizan los pasos clave y temas relacionados que hay que considerar durante la implementación, en el Capítulo 3 se ilustran diversas técnicas analíticas a través de un estudio de casos y en el Capítulo 4 se incluye un análisis de las lecciones aprendidas de un valioso conjunto de evaluaciones de “prácticas óptimas” de los proyectos de pobreza que se revisaron para este manual. Los estudios de casos, incluidos en el Anexo I, se seleccionaron de una variedad de evaluaciones realizadas por el Banco Mundial, otras agencias de donantes, instituciones de investigación y empresas consultoras privadas. Se eligieron por su rigor metodológico, en un intento por cubrir una amplia combinación de escenarios de países, tipos de proyectos y metodologías de evaluación. En los Anexos también se incluyen muestras de los principales componentes que serían necesarios al planificar cualquier evaluación de impacto: muestras de términos de referencia, un presupuesto, indicadores de impacto, un marco lógico y una matriz de análisis." (Prólogo, páginas 5-6)
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"Une synthèse des politiques de plusieurs pays africains francophones en matière de développement et d'utilisation des langues africaines en tant que stratégie essentielle pour l'amélioration et l'expansion des programmes d'éducation, et la fourniture de matériel didactique pertinent." (Hans
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M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2081)
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"Health communication scholars have tried to understand how individuals process information and have identided the factors that contribute to appropriate behavior change. Some of these theorists have, implicitly or explicitly, assumed that if individuals were provided with the ““rightÏÏ inform
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ation they would adopt the recommended behavior. Some others have endorsed the need to provide behavioral skills along with information so that individuals are able to carry out the desired behavior. Both approaches, however, are concerned with individual behavior change. Sociodemographic variables like class, gender, and race have seldom Ðgured in sociopsychological analyses in the AIDS context. L imited attention has been paid to the manner in which political, economic, and social variables have constrained or enabled individual behavior related to AIDS. In this article, the various sociopsychological theories/models that inform AIDS prevention are delineated; the sociopsychological approaches in the context of class, race, and gender issues are critiqued; and an analytical framework that integrates behavioral and societal level variables to guide policy interventions is provided." (Abstract)
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"The aim of this study was to examine some of the models through which the school population in Africa gain access to supplementary reading material, and to reach some conclusions which methods work best, and in which circumstances, and to recommend strategies that are affordable and sustainable. Gi
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ven the lack of published data, it was decided that a case study approach was the most feasible and practical. A range of different modalities were examined and evaluated in depth in seven different African countries: school library services (Ghana and Tanzania); school libraries (Mali); NGO-supported classroom libraries (South Africa); book box libraries (Mozambique); teachers resource centres (Kenya); and community resources centres (Botswana). The case studies, carried out by academics and librarians in these countries, highlight various issues which contribute to the effectiveness, or otherwise, of ways of providing access to supplementary education materials to school pupils in Africa. Many of the case studies conclude that a corollary of any strategy to provide supplementary reading materials is local book production, and the way forward is to develop a viable indigenous publishing industry in tandem with improved professional training of teachers, and in teaching with books. The book includes an extensive bibliography." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1884)
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"Through four case studies, this book examines some of the key issues in funding provision of textbooks and training materials in Africa. The case studies, contributed by experts in textbook production and distribution, offer individual country perspectives from The Gambia, Lesotho, Mozambique and C
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ôte d’Ivoire. They review the strengths and weaknesses of the different schemes, and represent a number of different strategies that have been developed in order to respond to the urgent need for more teaching and learning materials within an affordable, equitable, and sustainable framework." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1872)
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