Notes from the working week.
Essays, working papers, and policy notes from the practice. Written slowly, published when ready, never on a content-calendar.
We listen first, then we measure.
Most evaluation projects begin with a spreadsheet. Ours begin with a conversation. A short essay on why theory of change is the most honest part of the work.
The 16-page rule, and why our reports got shorter.
If your trustees aren't finishing the report, the report isn't the problem — but cutting it in half is the start of the answer.
Reading the small print of five funder portfolios.
A meta-analysis of evaluation reports across five major UK grant-makers. What they ask for, what they actually use.
What the new monitoring standard misses about smallholder farmers.
A four-page response to a draft DFID-successor framework. Submitted to consultation; partially adopted in v2.
Quasi-experimental designs are not a personality trait.
Choosing a method is the second-most-important thing about an evaluation. Choosing the question is the first.
Three days in Tamale, and what we got wrong on day one.
A short reflection on listening — and on the cost of arriving with a framework already drafted.
The case against the case study.
Why we resisted writing case studies for two years — and what changed our minds.
One note a month. Sometimes two.
Plain-language pieces on evaluation, evidence, and editorial. No tracking, no marketing.