Monitoring and evaluation in Malawi
When Ian Wilson and Carlos Barahona of the Statistical Services Centre at the University of Reading were asked to review an evaluation of the effectiveness of an aid package in Malawi, they expected a simple enough task. But few things in the developing world are simple. Where aid for the poorest is concerned, is evidence collected and analysed with enough rigour to enable well‐informed decisions to be made?
Uncovering the mysteries of inclusion: Empirical and methodological possibilities in participatory evaluation in an international context.
The inclusion of stakeholders in participatory evaluation in highly diverse, culturally complex settings remains a challenge, given issues of inequity, power, voice, capacity and skill. These challenges are well documented, but there is a relative absence of papers devoted to addressing them based on examples and evidence. In this paper, we report our review of 51 empirical studies of participatory evaluations conducted in the international domain, focusing on the methods of inclusion used in the evaluations. Our findings address "the who" (which stakeholders are included and which excluded), "the why" (rationales for participation) and "the how" (by what means and in what manner) of inclusion. We were struck by the scale of some development programs, geographically and in terms of the number of diverse program sponsors and stakeholders, and how this necessitated highly creative, innovative participatory techniques to ensure that anyone (and in some cases everyone) could have a voice in the process, regardless of location, language ability, privilege, power, gender, age or culture.
Evaluation and Control of Collapsible Soils
Some compacted soils wetted under certain conditions of compaction and loading may exhibit additional settlement (collapse). To investigate the effect of the soil type, compaction water content, initial dry unit weight and applied pressure at wetting on collapse potential, 138 single‐oedometer tests were conducted on eight different soils. The results indicate that well‐graded soils tend to collapse more than poorly graded ones under similar conditions. Furthermore, collapse potential decreases with an increase in (1) The difference between the sand and clay percentages; (2) compaction water content; and (3) initial dry unit weight, while it increases with pressure at wetting. A multiple regression analysis was performed on the laboratory results to provide a collapse‐predictive model that was substantiated by data reported by several researchers. A chart is presented to estimate (1) The collapse potential of soils under various conditions; and (2) the critical water content beyond which no collapse is ex...