Does your approach to gender analysis integrate evaluation best practices? And what does it mean to “apply a gender lens” to your evaluation approach?
Understanding and addressing gender realities remain vital challenges for development programming. But when we apply key evaluation principles to these challenges, we uncover opportunities for innovation that enable meaningful integration of a gender focus—with benefits for programs of all sizes and people of all gender identities.
We’re pleased to introduce a new resource, Bringing Gender Analysis to Life, demonstrating how EnCompass integrates four key characteristics of evaluation best practice in this work.
A Four-Part Model for Gender Analysis
Even though our gender analyses vary by scope, location, team composition, and other variables, we weave four essential elements through our process. As you will learn in the brief, this means emphasizing:
- Participatory approaches – thinking carefully and critically about who needs to be part of the process so the information is meaningful and relevant for all
- Appreciative Inquiry – seeking the spaces of equity that may already exist to support a transformation of unequal gender norms and dynamics
- Systems thinking – looking at intersectionality, or how gender structures, norms, and policies interact with other economic, political, and social systems
- Utilization – keeping the end users in mind from the start and directly engaging them in the gender analysis throughout the process
How to Use This Resource
In creating Bringing Gender Analysis to Life, we took inspiration from our work in Ethiopia and Lebanon. The content also draws from EnCompass’ years of experience in evaluation and gender analysis for a host of donors, foundations, and U.S. government clients.
Primary users are those who are working on similar analytical and programming challenges—especially teams or organizations looking at how to approach gender analysis as a mechanism for transforming programs toward greater inclusion. It’s most helpful for those who already have a strong working vocabulary in evaluation practice.
We invite all of you to explore the content and the resources linked throughout the document. And, we hope you’ll let us know how you are adapting your gender analysis approaches to include evaluation good practices like these. We would also appreciate hearing the ways you are applying a gender lens in your evaluation work.
Ready to Learn More?
This new resource launches our latest series of briefs and white papers, EnCompassing Inclusion. Be sure to check out our companion series, EnCompassing Evaluation—all free to download:
- Utilization-Focused Evaluation Recommendations
- The Virtues of Virtual MEL
- An Evaluator’s Guide to COVID-19
- Mapping Outcomes: Embedding evaluation in the life of an organization
Finally, be sure to visit the EnCompass Learning Center’s catalog for upcoming courses to build your skills in evaluation and related practices.
Image by Crystal Cason/Julie Harris, EnCompass LLC.