On this page:

• Relevant quotes,
• Recent clients,
• Independent Initiatives

Relevant quotes

• “There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use” – Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 1979
• “The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed“ William Gibson, 1999
• “In order to think outside of the box, you first need to find the box” Annie Woo, 2017

Recent clients

( Note: I am now working part-time)

Sheffield Hallam University

• Technical adviser to a team responsible for the evaluation of Sports England Local Delivery Pilots, using Configuational Comparative Methods

CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service

• Peer review of draft guidance on the use of evaluability assessments, for the Evaluation function of the CGIAR Advisory Services Shared Secretariat (CAS)

International Committee of the Red Cross

• Member of the Evaluation Expert Panel

World Food Programme

• Senior Evaluation Adviser, primarily as a member of the Evaluation Methods Advisory Panel (EMAP) to the WFP Office of Evaluation (OEV).

Chemonics UK

• Technical advice on the use of the Most Significant Change (MSC) and Hierarchical Card Sorting (HCS) techniques to monitor programme implementation and outcomes in Iraq

ITAD, UK

• Member of the Technical Advisory group, supporting an evaluability assessment of the GAVI funded “COVAX Facility and COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC)“

Oxford Policy Management, UK

• Technical support on the use of MSC and ParEvo, to monitor and evaluate the uptake of research findings, from a portfolio of grants provided by the Templeton Foundation

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, UK

• Technical support with the use of ParEvo, as a means of exploring future scenarios in three different risk areas.

Leitmotiv Social Consultant, Spain

• Technical support with the use of the ParEvo web app to explore: (a)  the experiences of international development volunteers, (b) the management of gender issues in a UN organisation

Association of Professional Futurists

• Member of APF Evaluation Task Force, “a 1 1/2-year initiative to think deeply about evaluation of foresight as well as identify helpful resources”

Integrity Action, UK

• Technical adviser and member of steering group for research on “Achieving positive solutions to citizen-identified problems with service delivery”

Dept. for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UK

• Member of BEIS External Peer Review Group – ” to improve the quality of evaluations within the department by providing an independent, transparent assessment of the quality of our evaluations prior to publication;”

Teach First, New Zealand

• Assisting an evaluation team to develop predictive models of the conditions associated with the achievement of objectives relating to teacher training (with Standard of Proof and Synergia)

Oxfam Iraq

• Assist the evaluation team with the development of predictive models of conditions associated with displaced women (in Kirkuk) developing sustainable enterprises and increased personal autonomy.

Oxfam UK

• Member of an advisory group re the implementation of Oxfam’s Knowledge and Learning Framework

Swedish Expert Group for Aid Studies

• Member of the Reference Group – Study on Diagnostic approaches and Theory-Based Evaluation.
• Member of the Reference Group –Evaluating Development Interventions with Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Centre for Excellence in Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL, UK)

• Member of the Intellectual Leadership Team (ILT), peer reviewing papers by other members of CEDIL
• Commissioned author of “Representing Theories of Change: Technical Challenges with Evaluation Consequences”

DFID, UK

• A synthesis of lessons learned from evaluations of seven DFID programmes in Nigeria, in respect to selected issues (value for money, sustainability, adaptability, synergy)
• A synthesis of lessons learned from evaluations and reviews of 16 DFID programmes operating in the Caribbean between 2009 and 2021
• Member of the Independent Advisory Group supporting the providers of Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning support to the International Climate Fund
• Member of the Evaluation Reference Group for the DFID “Work In Freedom” project, which seeks to prevent the trafficking of Women and Girls from Nepal, India and Bangladesh into the garment and domestic work sectors in the Gulf.

Austrian Development Agency

• Peer reviewer for an evaluation of the Good Governance programmes portfolio, with a focus on methodology
• Training ADA and other GoA agency staff in evaluability assessment
• Peer reviewer of an evaluability assessment of the GoA Climate Policy Document
• Drafting of the main body of text in the Evaluability Assessments in Austrian development cooperation Guidance Document

Tripleline, UK

• Design and co-implementation of repeat surveys of NGO – partner organisation working relationships in South Sumatra. Combining social network analysis and predictive modelling methods.

VSO, UK

• External evaluation adviser to the ICS evaluation steering committee

SOLEP Luxembourg

• SOLEP Conference: Evaluation in a Big Data Analytics Era
  • Panel Discussant:Big data analytics in evaluation: where do we stand and where are we headed?
  • Workshop on “Prediction modeling as an evaluation tool” using EvalC3,

Oxfam UK

• Training workshop on the use of EvalC3, for use in project evaluations (causes of effects, effects of courses, and identify positive deviants) and evaluation synthesis.
• Analysis of data on 400 cooperatives in Africa, using EvalC3, to find predictors of high and low performance and to find any cases of “positive deviance

Development Cafe, Jakarta

• One day training on prediction modeling using EvalC3, within the Innovations in Evaluation: Big Data, Blockchain, and Human-Centred Design for Development Programming workshop in July 2018

Independent Initiatives

ParEvo

• A web-assisted participatory scenario planning process, for the exploration of alternative futures alternative histories. Follow its development https://mscinnovations.wordpress.com/

EvalC3

• Development and support of EvalC3, a free and user-friendly Excel app designed for developing, exploring and evaluating predictive models of expected outcomes. Find out more here: https://evalc3.net/

“Most Significant Change” (MSC)

• Supporting a community of users of the MSC technique, a participatory method of impact monitoring and evaluation. Developed in Bangladesh 1992/3 and now used worldwide. Find out more here: https://mande.co.uk/special-issues/most-significant-change-msc/

Hierarchical Card Sorting” (HCS)

• A simple tool for qualitative research and inquiry, also useful for planning and evaluation. A specific form of Hierarchical Card Sorting, also first developed in Bangladesh in 1992/3. A relatively unrecognised and unappreciated sibling of MSC. Find out more here: https://mande.co.uk/special-issues/hierarchical-card-sorting-hcs/
• The Ethnographic Explorer, a web app based on the use of HCS, but going further

The Basic Necessities Survey (BNS)

• The Basic Necessities Survey (BNS) is a method of measuring poverty that is: (a) Simple to design and implement. (b) The results are easy to analyse and to communicate to others, (c) Democratic in the way that it identifies what constitutes poverty and who is poor. (d) Rights-based, in its emphasis on entitlement. Now widely used by conservation agencies such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

MandE NEWS

• Managing the MandE NEWS website, email list, and Twitter feed. A news service focusing on developments in monitoring and evaluation methods relevant to development programmes with social development objectives, since 1997. Find out more here: https://mande.co.uk/

Better Evaluation

•  Contributor to the Better Evaluation website, implemented by RMIT University, ILAC, PACT and ODI.

EVALUATION journal

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board
• Peer reviewer of submitted papers

Published papers

• On evaluation issues, published by DFID, AusAID, ODI, Evaluation, American Journal of Evaluation and others
• Peer review of papers by others, for Evaluation, American Evaluation Journal,
  Evaluation and Program Planning,  Development in Practice, Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security,
• Book reviews (pre-publication drafts) for Wageningen University, Stanford University Press, ITDG Publishing
• For a full list see here: https://richardjdavies.wordpress.com/papers-and-presentations/   and here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rick_Davies

Conference presentations and workshops

• UK Evaluation Society Conference, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
• European Evaluation Society Conference: 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022

PhD Thesis supervision/examination

• PhD Candidate Lisa Popelier, 2020, Institute of Development Policy, Universiteit Antwerpen. Thesis title: Uncovering the potential of social accountability initiatives in fostering disability-inclusive development. A multi-method analysis of the influence pathways of disability-sensitive community-based monitoring in Katakwi, Eastern Uganda. External examiner
• PhD Candidate: Ms BAI Boodhoo, 2017, University of Capetown. Thesis title: Evaluator characteristics and programme evaluability decisions: An exploratory study of evaluation practice in South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America
• PhD Candidate Irene Guijt, 2007, University of Wageningen. Thesis title: Seeking Surprise: Rethinking monitoring for collective learning in rural resource management.