Mansfield Fellow Addresses Monitoring, Evaluation, and Policymaking in International Development
Mansfield Fellow Addresses Monitoring, Evaluation, and Policymaking in International Development
June 15, 2017
Mansfield Fellow Lauren Damme discussed the evolution of evaluation and evidence-based policymaking in the U.S. in a May 31 seminar organized by the Mansfield Foundation and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo. Ms. Damme, a member of the twenty-first class of Mansfield Fellows, is an International Relations Officer in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. She supports the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) portfolio of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (OCFT), and she used the work of this office to illustrate what the U.S. government’s emphasis on evaluation means for global foreign assistance trends.
Ms. Damme began her presentation by explaining the background and evolution of M&E and evidence-based policymaking in U.S. government agencies. She discussed how movement towards evidence-based policymaking in domestic social programs led to changes in evaluation requirements for U.S. foreign assistance, and how these requirements impact all of those involved in international development service delivery. She then illustrated this point by describing how changes in the breadth and depth of M&E requirements in her home office affect OCFT’s foreign assistance supply chain. Based on her experiences in JICA’s (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Evaluation Department, she concluded with a discussion of challenges and opportunities as Japan also works to improve monitoring and evaluation of their Official Development Assistance. Please visit https://twitter.com/MansfieldFDN to view video of the event. Please click here to view slides from Ms. Damme’s presentation.
