Outcome Harvesting is an evaluation approach that identifies and makes sense of actual changes to which programme contributed. It is especially suited to programmes that occur in uncertain and messy situations where there's a high chance of unintended results; some for better, some for worse. It is recommended by some of the largest international development agencies for contexts and initiatives with unpredictable outcomes. The approach has been developed over the last 16 years during which at least 1000 evaluations have used it around the world: in Africa, Asica, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. This training will take you through the rationale of the approach, its steps and principles. You will work on your own material (should you have any; alternatively, you will use material from existing outcome harvest evaluations). By the end of the workshop you will be able to implement an OH in your own context, although you will still need to practice some of the steps to build confidence and compentence, ideally with some mentorship.



Objectives 

The objective of the workshop is to build participants understanding of the basic of the Outcome Harvesting (OH) method such that



• as commissioners or conductors of evaluations, they can identify when it is approapriate to use this method to address questions
• they are able to accurately use the steps and principles of the methods to support organisational learning and accountability

Methodology

This course will run in a workshop-style using adult learning methodologies. Group work is interspersed with input sessions. Workshops provide a space for participants to learn from each by sharing knowledge and experiences.

Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will

• understand the thinking behind Outcome Harvesting (OH) approaches;
• be able to explain and apply the steps and principles of OH and how they interact with each other, considering both mentoring and evaluation contexts;
• be able to articulate outcome statements and distinguish between outputs and outcomes;
• be able to create categories for analysis outcomes
• understand in principle how to structure a process of interpretation of outcomes for learning and improvement
• understand why OH supports both learning and accountability uses

Who should attend?



• Organisations involved in social change initiatives seeking to understand how to evaluate them
• Internal or external evaluators interested in an approach that focuses on outcomes
• Funders or organisations who commission evaluations in complex contexts