STS joins USAID and ECCN for a webcast on What’s Good Enough? Strategies for Data Collection and M&E in Conflict Zones

STS joined USAID and ECCN for a webcast on What’s Good Enough? Strategies for Data Collection and M&E in Conflict Zones

Have you faced challenges in data collection efforts while evaluating activities in conflict or crisis zones? Do you wonder what the best research design is, given the constraints you’re facing? Have you considered how to adapt findings for stakeholders with differing agendas?

Recently STS joined USAID and ECCN for a conversation about navigating challenges in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) when working in crisis and conflict zones. This webcast waspart of an ongoing series of events ECCN is hosting about M&E strategies and practices when working with education programs in crisis and conflict settings (EiCC). The webcast considered issues around assessment development and adaptation, enumerator recruitment and supervision, data collection, and funders’ measurement expectations in unstable environments. Panelists—featuring development practitioners from Chemonics, School-to-School International, Creative Associates, and USAID—shared lessons learned from reporting on a national EGRA (Afghanistan’s first) and other stories and lessons from crisis and conflict zones, including experiences shared by attendees. ECCN also communicated updates on a new guidance tool for data quality considerations and indicator development efforts aimed at improving equity in EiCC programming.

Moderated by STS’s President, Mark Lynd
With over 30 years’ experience in international education development, including in crisis and conflict zones, Dr. Mark Lynd brings in-depth skills and knowledge in the design and implementation of large-scale education initiatives. Since 2002, Lynd has served as president of STS, working to build educational systems and improve learning outcomes in contexts where safety, security, and stability were at times uncertain.

Panelists include STS’s Program Manager, Casey McHugh
As a program manager at STS, brings over six years of experience in international education, gender, program management, and monitoring and evaluation. She has experience in applied research and monitoring and evaluation, specializing in both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. McHugh managed STS’s subcontract on the USAID-funded Resources, Skills, Capacity Building in Early Grade Reading in Afghanistan (RSC-EGR), implemented by Chemonics International.