Catalystas: Beatrice ...
Baseline, Midterm, and Endline Evaluation:
Effective evaluations are a key stepping stone to effective programming. Catalystas can help your organization ensure that projects are off to a solid start by conducting in-depth Baseline Evaluations to establish a critical reference point against which changes and impacts can be measured. We can also support you in conducting external Midterm and Endline Evaluations, designed to measure the progress your programming has made, the changes achieved - whether intended or unintended - and the overall impact you have made among your target groups. All of our evaluation methodologies use standardized, yet flexible, approaches, including measuring against OECD-DAC criteria.
Evaluation Framework and Indicator Design:
The creation of a clear evaluative framework is essential to proving the success of your programs and projects. Catalystas can build a tailored evaluation framework, complete with Theory of Change, Log Frame, and Monitoring and Evaluation Action Plan and Timeline with select indicators. We use human-centered, mixed method evaluation indicator design, combining quantitative and qualitative indicators to demonstrate evidence-based results tied to each stage of your project activities.
Impact Assessment:
Assessing programmatic impact is both art and science. Catalystas combines an investigative analysis of qualitative evidence and quantitative data to determine the impacts of your project; tangible and intangible, intended and unintended. We measure the significance of the changes realized through your project activities, and produce a comprehensive report detailing successes, weaknesses, best practices, gaps, and recommendations for future improvement in a comprehensible manner.
Organizational Assessment:
Internal structures are just as important as external activities. If internal processes and mechanisms are ineffective, your organization won't be able to achieve its full potential when it comes to programs and projects. Catalystas is experienced in investigating the inner workings of organizations, from understanding decision-making hierarchies, to examining feedback loops, to hearing out staff grievances.
We operate from the bottom up and the top down, interacting with staff and leadership at all levels in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of your organization's strengths, weaknesses, gaps, challenges, and opportunities. We then tailor recommendations for improvement as part of an overall assessment report, designed in an easily digestible manner that can be shared throughout the organization as a basis for clear communication and improvement. As always, safety and confidentiality are paramount; we do not use any identifiable data in order to ensure the security of all staff throughout your organization.
Perception Surveying & Analysis:
Measuring change is not always possible using quantitative data alone. In order to examine levels of change in qualitative evidence such as perception, behavior, and attitude, Catalystas can help your organization design, disseminate, and dissect small and large scale surveys. We can create surveys on a wide variety of topics and across various platforms, from social media questionnaires to in-person paper forms. We can also adapt to various population needs, including low levels of literacy, limited access to the internet, and multilingual communities. We hold safety and confidentiality at the core of our approach, and always ensure that survey participant data is kept confidential, anonymous, and secured.
Financial Auditing:
Transparency and a strong track record of compliance are gold stars for any organization. Catalystas can conduct a financial audit of your organization, examining internal or project based documentation, accounting entries, tax statements, balance sheets, billing procedures, account balances, and more to provide a clear and transparent report that you can present to potential partners, donors, and other relevant stakeholders as proof of financial fitness and trustworthiness.
Gender Auditing:
Having a gender policy is one thing; implementing it is another. Catalystas can conduct an audit of your organization with a focus on gender sensitivity, investigating internal and external processes to ensure that gender equality is incorporated into your organizational practices at every level, from the types of support staff members receive to the gender balance on your board and upper management. We will provide you with a comprehensive report of the results, including best practices, areas for improvement, and recommendations for short, medium, and long term actions.
Gender Benchmarking:
Catalystas' Gender Benchmark Certification gives your organization a seal of approval when it comes to the implementation of gender sensitivity and the mainstreaming of gender equality throughout policies and practices. Following a gender audit, Catalystas will rank your organization using our specially developed Benchmarking System, and with a high enough score, will present your organization with a displayable Gender Benchmark Certificate.
Case Study: Financing Feminism – Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir-Argentina
Catalysta: Sofia Cos ...
Case Study: Examining Economic Empowerment – Chadian Entrepreneurship among Youth and Women
Client: Dutch Minist ...
Case Study: Dutch MFA- Sahel Entrepreneurship
In 2019, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aiming to Start a powerful new initiative across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to boost Youth Job Creation in Ag Value Chains and Empower Women and Youth Entrepreneurship — But Where to start and how to be the most impactful in the Sahel? Catalysts Consulting has just the right team, gender focus, and drive to undertake the baseline country assessment to provide insights how the Embassy and the Netherlands Enterprise Development Agency(RVO) could best make soon to be in place strategy for intervention.
Tenants of Equity-Focused Project Evaluation
Catalystas helped Stichting Help Kobanê grow from a small group of friends to a fully-fledged NGO, organizing internal structures, creating strategies, developing projects, and ultimately launching and running an initial fundraising campaign to support the education of young children in a war-torn region of Syria.
By enhancing their internal organizational structure, focusing on both short and long term goals, and planning and executing a social-media driven crowdfunding campaign, SHK outperformed all expected targets, better positioning itself to continue with a solidified financial foundation to take on new projects and campaigns.
CASE STUDY: ActionAid Kenya Isiolo
Aviva Stein worked alongside ActionAid Netherlands in order to assist the Country Office in Kenya with mid-project evaluation reporting. ActionAid is an international NGO dedicated to supporting women’s rights, empowering local communities, and combating inequality in developing countries.
