Development Impact Evaluation Wiki that you can use

Are you passionate about evaluation? Are looking for practical resources for your next gig? You will sure love DIME Wiki – launched by the World Bank. The Wiki home page is organized around four primary phases in the impact evaluation life-cycle: research design, data collection, analysis, and publication. In each category, there are a list of primary articles, which the branch off to provide increasing detail.

As any other Wiki, the pages are fully searchable and interactive. Members can collaborate to expand the resources – adding more materials (papers, supplementary content to existing articles) and creating new pages. DIME Wiki is ideal for researchers and M&E specialists at the World Bank, clients who are managing data collection efforts in the field, donor institutions, universities, NGOs and governments.

DIME is another resource to watch.

... Good to be back

The last couple of months, I have enjoyed mind-provoking conversations with someone that reminded me about the purpose of life, serving a good cause and staying the course. These conversations have helped me to rediscover myself and reconnect to my passion.

I have committed to read more, share thoughts more often_not only via @mmayanja_and continue to strive to be in the service of humanity. 

The Internet - Not a Human Right

Monday, CBC carried a story that the UN wants "access to the Internet" to be declared a Human Right. Before I am accused of anything, I self-identify as an "ICT-huger". I however don't believe technologies should be a Human Right.

Just think of Radio or TV, they are both only as good as what we do with them. They don't constitute a Right but access to information - through these tools and others - is. Same way that water pipes in communities should not be a Right.

Look, what will be done to the countries that violent their citizens' Right to the Internet?...well, to the UN Right body I say, never been good to ask a question whose answer you can't handle.

Take a Listen: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Radio/The_Current/1450068094/ID=1984355208

New approaches to measure poverty

I have always thought that the Human Development Report doesn't measure poverty fairy. Yes, because it masks the plight of the most vulnerable and gloss over economic gains and indices. How about a tool that gives communities a tool to self-identify on the poverty scale - using day-to-day benchmarks such as happiness, how they cook their food etc

Check out this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/24/talkpoint-measuring-development-progress

Telling a students’ story, raising writers in Sierra Leone

Students in 10 schools in Sierra Leone are taking writing to a new level. With support from Sentinel English Language Institute based in Freetown, students have organized clubs in which they write stories, receive peer review and teachers’ support to improve their work. Sentinel has published the first collection of students’ essays.

I met with the Director of Sentinel Institute, Jacqueline Leigh, to discuss her experiences with this initiative. Jackie told how students have been excited by the challenge of writing and peer reviewing their pieces. Through the editing process, students took turns reading their pieces aloud to the club members. “Students are very excited to see their essays published, this will also likely motivate them to continue on the path of reading and writing” observed Jackie.

Sentinel’s initiative has encountered a couple of challenges. Teachers’ skills in the teaching of reading in writing are generally weak in most Sierra Leone schools and students do not have access to books. For the most part, reading skills are very limited – a deficiency manifested by the limited vocabulary expressed in the essays the students write –copies of which I received during our discussion. “If students had access to a variety of reading materials it would have improved the project’s work” Jackie observed.

Sentinel is a member of the newly created steering committee for Le Wi Ol Lan (a Krio name for Opportunity Schools Project) and Books Sierra Leone. The goal of the two projects is to improve reading and writing skills among primary students in Kenema district – Eastern Sierra Leone. The projects will therefore train teachers in reading and writing instruction. Schools will also receive books that support classroom instructions and stimulate students’ interest to read. A number of books will be imported by November 2011 and at least eight titles will be written by local writers and illustrators. With Sentinel’s experience, students’ stories may also be published. This would really help the students’ effort to learn reading and writing.

The missing piece in Reading and Writing puzzle - Sierra Leone

“…While the country has officially committed to increasing literacy, primary school teachers are unable to teach pupils to read and write. The teachers themselves are generally untrained and don’t have the books they need to help pupils.” - A Sierra Leonean educator

This comment was made at the opening of the training workshop of enumerators for the Le Wi Ol lan project - which means “let us learn” in Krio. Formerly called Opportunity Schools Program, the Le Wi Ol lan project includes CODE’s new Reading Sierra Leone initiative designed to improve students’ learning achievements in Kenema district in Sierra Leone. It will train teachers in reading and writing instruction and supply books to support teachers in the classrooms and stimulate student’s reading habits.

The baseline survey will guide teacher training and books acquisition and development and will assess 353 students in grades 1-3 between May 9th and 13th. The survey is coordinated by IRC field office in Kenema and CODE.

This project could not have been launched at a better time. There is clearly a lot of enthusiasm in Sierra Leone to increase reading and writing performance. During the training, I sensed that a number of educators on the team had been engaged in discussions about the sorry state of languages and literacy. I learned that they have been investigating ways to support classroom teachers at lower primary levels – the foundation of literacy acquisition. Literacy champions face limited resources and very little awareness about what work remains to be done.

The fact that local champions exist is special. It presents a unique opportunity for CODE to carry out teacher development and book development support. Indeed at the end of the training, I promised the enumerators that project schools will demonstrate a change in reading and writing abilities within 5 years.

This project was launched in Febrary 2011 and has initial funding from an anonomious foundation with strong interests in education and human rights in Sierra Leone. Together, CODE and IRC look forward to making a lasting change in the literacy and education of children in Sierra Leone.

Impact of English world on global innovation

As native languages continue to struggle for survival, the influence of French in Africa is fast fading. Models have emerge of possible impact of a mono-lingual civilization especially with regard to innovation and global competitiveness. We now know that emphasis on English language is indeed killing other languages and constraining us to tap into the creativity of non-English speakers?

You’ve probably heard about TOEFL. Yes, me too. Patricia Ryan asks if a computer programmer needs as much score as a doctor on the TOEFL. Good question. Fact is that the score will always be the same regardless. People are therefore screened on the basis of how they can communicate in English in total disregard of what they know or can contribute to global issues. How health is that?

In this piece, Patricia Ryan paints a simple, yet effective case for preservation of native languages (multi-lingualism). She claims that 1 language dies every 14 days. check out her remarks here: http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english.html