Gender-Transformative Program Design and Evaluation, September 2024

Instructor: Tessie Catsambas

Using a gender-transformative lens, this practical course follows a comprehensive approach to integrating gender into project design and evaluation, and into solicitations. Participants will conduct a “deep dive” into gender-transformative program design and evaluation in a range of issues, including women’s economic empowerment, education, political participation, combatting gender-based violence, and addressing intersectionality in gender issues. By the end of this course, participants will be able to articulate the case for gender integration, conduct gender analysis, and integrate gender into development programs and evaluations in ways that promote healthy gender norms, structures, and behaviors.

This program is delivered in four virtual, instructor-led modules. Read about each of the modules below. Classes will take place online via Zoom. Each participant who completes all four modules will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Module 1: The Gender-Transformative Lens and Gender Analysis
September 3, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. EDT

The gender-transformative lens goes beyond a gender-responsive frame; it not only looks to adapt programs into existing gender norms, but is driven by a vision of healthy, equitable, inclusive and productive gender relationships and structures. In this module, participants will review a number of approaches to gender analysis, and learn how to recognize a high-quality gender analysis, and how to use it in program design and evaluation. Participants will practice with a range of questions to conduct gender analysis, and also engage in a self-assessment of their own positionality in the gender map continuum. By the end of this module, participants will be able to use a gender analysis framework, and take a systems thinking approach to gender analysis in a range of programs. 

Module 2: Integrating Gender into Project Design
September 5, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. EDT

Using the Gender Integration Continuum, this module will explore the integration of gender into developing program theories of change. Participants will practice using findings from gender analysis to “engender” a theory of change. By the end of this module, participants will be able to advocate convincingly about the imperative of contributions of gender integration into program design and TOR, and provide examples of what would be lost without it. 

Module 3: Integrating Gender in Evaluation
September 10, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. EDT

Building on a theory of change, participants will develop a monitoring system that incorporates a gender transformative lens, and explore its use in program management. Participants will then practice developing engendered evaluation questions and indicators. With practical exercises and case studies, participants will learn to organize their evaluations to embed a gender transformative lens into data collection. Case studies will include issues of women’s political participation, challenging systemic gender-based discrimination, and promote healthy male gender norms. 

Module 4: Integrating Gender into Data Analysis and Report Writing 
September 12, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. EDT

In this module, participants will learn good practices in data analysis that help them build gender in findings and recommendations. How should evaluators present issues that challenge fundamental aspects of program design? How should evaluators (and program managers) address issues of systemic discrimination that is much larger than one particular program? This module will suggest practical ways to navigate these and other such difficult findings in ways that enable programs to learn and improve productively within systems of embedded inequalities. A simulation test will review lessons from the whole course. 

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