The GEM Tool: Gender Evaluation Methodology for Internet and ICTs

To draw up a list of intended users and their corresponding use to the evaluation results
To enlist an evaluation team that includes stakeholders who can address gender and ICT issues

What are Evaluation Exercises?

Often the concept of evaluation is linked to a donor requirement, an externally imposed system of checking to determine that project objectives were met and resources were wisely utilised. However, there are many other reasons why evaluations are conducted, for example:

To identify areas of improvement in a project or programme
To highlight and resolve disagreements
To set priorities and goals
To clarify and tackle problems
To suggest new strategic directions
To get feedback, appraisal and recognition
To celebrate project achievements
To attract resources toward a project

What needs to be examined beyond these more common objectives is a straightforward, yet critical question – How will the evaluation be used.

A well–developed evaluation approach called utilization-focused evaluation (U-FE), states that “evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use”. Michael Quinn Patton, developer of this approach, points out that use is not an abstraction. Intended use, he says, “concerns how real people in the real world will apply evaluation findings and experience in the real world”. Evaluations should be facilitated and designed having in mind how everything that will be done from the start of the process up to the end will affect intended use. Patton’s extensive study of conducting professional evaluation reveals that the most challenging question concerns identifying what needs to be done to get appropriate results that can be meaningfully used. The focus of the evaluation is on intended use by intended users. [Patton 10, 20-22]

Setting evaluation objectives is about clarifying who intends to use the evaluation and how they intend to use the results. The GEM tool adapts intended use to specifically define evaluation objectives.

Bear in mind that it is important to differentiate intended use or evaluation objectives from project objectives. In a project cycle, formulating objectives are derived from problem identification. An objective may be stated as an expressed intention to address a problem, which can be a statement of intended quantified outcomes to be achieved in a specified time frame. In terms of gender issues, the objective should state the intent to address and eliminate a gender issue, for instance, ending a discriminatory practice that leads to closing a gender gap.

On the other hand, intended use or an evaluation objective may specifically focus on how users intend to use evaluation results. For example, a project objective of GEM tester Fantsuam Foundation was to promote access to ICT facilities and provide ski lls training for women in rural communities in Nigeria through their community learning centres. The evaluation objective of Fantsuam, as the main user of the evaluation, wanted to evaluate how services provided in the community learning centres empowered women and girls.

How can Gender be Made Visible in a Project?

Overall, the intended use of GEM is to analyse gender issues, perspectives and lessons in ICT projects and initiatives. Your task in STEP 1 is to specifically define your intended users and how you plan to use the results of your gender evaluation.

Who are Stakeholders and Intended Users?

Gender is a cross-cutting issue that affects all project stakeholders and all aspects of a project activity including evaluation. All evaluations, however, do not necessarily have to include all the groups that have participated, benefited or did not benefit from project activities. Choices will have to be made based on evaluation objectives and gender aspects or issues of project stakeholders as intended users of the evaluation.

In identifying intended users, it is good practice to be as specific as possible and determine “actual primary intended users and their explicit commitments to concrete, specific uses.” [Patton 21] The choice of users will determine whose values and interests will frame the evaluation. Full and active involvement of intended users will lead to the following advantages:

they will more likely use the evaluation if they understand and feel they own the evaluation process and findings
they will more likely understand and own the evaluation if they were actively involved in the process

Primary users should be involved in the evaluation since they, in the first place were users or were directly involved in the project. As recipients and/or participants of the project, they are in the best position to determine how to reinforce the intended use of the evaluation every step of the way.

To determine users of your evaluation, think about project stakeholders who will be crucial when examining gender and ICT issues. Consider the following in making your decisions:

Stakeholders can be both internal and external such as project executors, project staff and management for the former. Project beneficiaries belong in the latter category.
Particularly in the case of ICT initiatives, stakeholders may be located anywhere in the world.
Projects have direct stakeholders, those who are/or were directly involved in the project’s activities, and indirect stakeholders or those who did not participate in the project and may or may not have been affected by it. The second group is often critical in an evaluation.
Other organisations involved in similar projects and activities can also be stakeholders. In fact such organisations can of fer important insights and “sector” commentaries that provide a broader but focused context for your evaluation findings.

Your relationship with and how you approach project stakeholders is as important as the process of identifying them. How these stakeholders participate in the evaluation reflects your organisation’s underlying values or approach to evaluation and the ICT project in general.

Project beneficiaries, the primary target group of the ICT initiative, are integral to the process of uncovering and analysing gender and ICT issues. Remember, gender analysis becomes transformative when arrived at by people who are directly involved in the process.

Below is an example of a list of stakeholders of an ICT project that highlights the core stakeholders who may be identified as users of your evaluation.

Telecentre Stakeholders
Internal	Staff of the Telecentre Management
Community (which refers here to all the groups which can use the telecentre and directly or indirectly benefit from it)	Users and non'users Community organisations Local government Public services in the area served by the telecentre
Stakeholders (which includes all those whose actions interfere with the telecentre operation)	Sponsors, funding agencies, support or operating agencies Government agencies Service providers
Interested parties	Other organisations considering use of telecentres Other telecentres and telecentre organisations
General public	Media Development organisations Educators and researchers working on ICTs use and social development
Source: Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment )MEIA= of Telecentres: An Initial Framework (Telelac)