HAEC Capacity Strengthening Activities
HAEC develops capacity strengthening curriculum and training for researchers, policy makers, and leaders in humanitarian contexts.
About
HAEC's hosts both in-person and online capacity-strengthening activities to fill critical gaps in the humanitarian space surrounding impact evaluations. Specifically, HAEC works to debunk common myths surrounding conducting impact evaluations in humanitarian contexts, strengthen implementing partners' capacity to identify when an impact evaluation is appropriate and would provide value for the organization, provides templates and resources to reduce time and cost barriers associate with evaluations, and collaborates with policymakers to create useful time-saving resources.
Navigating Constraints to Implementing Impact Evaluations in Humanitarian Settings
To increase the utilization of impact evaluations, HAEC first worked to understand the key barriers to conducting impact evaluations in humanitarian contexts. To do so, the team conducted 68 consultations with implementers, funders, and researchers and identified ten primary constraints. HAEC outlined these constraints, as well as successful strategies for navigating them, in this report.
Debunking Common Myths
Through the consultation process, HAEC also identified common myths and created a video series to debunk these myths. The three-part series follows the journey of Paul and Jane to discover how they can use impact evaluations to inform their work, including through quasi-experimental designs. Click the links below to watch:
- Debunking Myths about Impact Evaluations in Humanitarian Contexts
- Are Impact Evaluations in Humanitarian Settings Necessarily Unethical?
- How Can We Use Finging from an Impact Evaluation to Inform our Decision Making?
Capacity Strengthening Events and Resources
Online Webinars
HAEC hosts virtual webinars to share key messages with a wide audience we otherwise might not be able to reach. For example, from 2023-2024, HAEC hosted a three-part Impact Insights series to engage with implementers and researchers around different evaluation types and methods. This series, which highlighted practical examples from around the world, reached over 500 professionals from 85 countries. You can view the presentations and watch the recordings in the links below:
In-Person Capacity Strengthening Workshops
HAEC hosts in-person capacity strengthening workshops for M&E professionals to better understand what an impact evaluation is, the types of questions they can answer, different types of evaluation designs, evaluation requirements, and when an impact evaluation would provide value for an organization. HAEC has engaged practitioners at regional workshops in Thailand, Turkey, Ghana, and Colombia. But recognizing that not everyone can attend in-person workshops, HAEC is also working to adapt the curriculum for an online e-course, coming 2024.
Tools & Templates
HAEC develops template tools and resources to reduce the time, cost, and capacity barriers that limit impact evaluations in humanitarian settings. These resources include:
- Impact Evaluation Methodology Crib Sheet
- Common Threats to Impact Evaluation Design
- Power Calculation Stata Code
- Template Survey for Household Demographics
- Informed Consent Template
- Blog on Pre-Positioning Research
- Blog on Impact Evaluations for Inclusive Programming