Throughout the academic year I, along with the rest of the BUILD members, listened to multiple presentations on the importance of monitoring and evaluation to measure the effectiveness of a project or intervention. Although at the time it seemed like a lot of information, I now realize that we only began to scratch the surface of the complexity and difficulty of metrics.
At Value for Women gender metrics are measured at a variety of levels and categories. Metrics are considered at the individual, business, intervention, or ecosystem level, while data on gender is categorized as conventional performance small and growing business metrics, sex desegregated metrics, women specific indicators, women specific programs, and triangulated data collection. These categorizations are not meant to complicate, but instead simplify the wide array of metrics and measurements that organizations currently use to monitor and evaluate data on gender. I began working on metrics with Value for Women by summarizing and organizing notes from the ANDE Metrics Conference. The next step, continued during the second portion of my internship, was to research the indicators created during a brainstorm at the conference. With my research I began to uncover case studies of organizations measuring the beneficial effects of including more women in their portfolios and the success or failure or implementing particular metrics. In addition, I researched how organizations measure gendered factors such as the control of power in the home and satisfaction with work and life balance. What amazed me most about the information I gathered was the vast array of indicators organizations used to measure the same phenomenon. Finally, the complexity of metrics was again revealed to me as I helped create an ecosystem-wide gender metrics survey. The purpose of the survey was to gather information on the metrics that organizations currently measure and would like to measure at both the individual and ecosystem level in order to create a metrics pilot study. Part of what makes Value for Women such an interesting and sophisticated organization is their ecosystem focus. Value for Women aims to build the capacity of ecosystem actors ranging from businesses, organizations, banks, and nonprofits, to support women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. By collecting data on the metrics used by a variety of organizations working towards a similar cause, Value for Women hopes build the ecosystem's capacity to help women entrepreneurs by helping organizations improve their services and increase their impact. Studying metrics with Value for Women has helped me to build on the knowledge of monitoring and evaluation, metrics, and measurement that I began to learn with BUILD. For more information on Value for Women's metrics initiatives, click on the following link to read an article written by the Stanford Innovation Review: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/metrics_3.0_a_new_vision_for_shared_metrics
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Since I have started interning at Value for Women I have been working on a variety of tasks from facilitating weekly operations meetings, to translating an organizational CV from Spanish to English, to consolidating and summarizing notes from the ANDE metrics conference. The work I have done has been both fulfilling and interesting! Besides the weekly Skype meetings and responsibilities, one of my long-term projects has included writing a blog article on the new additions to the WEL methodology created by Value for Women.
Although it is not yet complete, I have been writing a blog article for the NextBillion website (http://www.nextbillion.net/) that describes the additions to the Women’s Economic Leadership (WEL) methodology. Women’s Economic Leadership is defined as the process of identifying commercially viable market opportunities that benefit women and increase women’s power in market systems. The WEL methodology was created by Value for Women and Oxfam as a seven-step method to supporting women entrepreneurs within a specific community. Steps include everything from assessing the optimal market strategies, to making a business plan, to supporting change at the household level. The methodology was created several years ago and has been piloted in several countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am specifically blogging about the new additions to the methodology, which include a definition of key terms, such as Women’s Economic Leadership, interculturality, and reproductive work, as well as a section on preventing violence against women. Case studies and pilots have demonstrated that often when women become entrepreneurs power dynamics and traditional roles shift in ways that leave women more vulnerable physical, verbal, and psychological abuse. The Violence Against Women section of the WEL methodology includes an intervention checklist and prevention tools that can be used to decrease the risk of and keep track of instances of abuse against women. In order to inform the public about the uniqueness and effectiveness of the additions to the methodology, my job is to not only conduct research, but also interview several Value for Women team members on their experiences with the methodology. However, one challenge I have faced with working virtually for an international organization has been successful communication. Between international travel and an incredible amount of work, team members have busy schedules that make it hard to contact them and find time to talk. Although last week I finally set up two interviews, in the end they both had to be cancelled. In one case, my interviewee got a stomach bug on his trip to Guatemala and in the other the time zone complications of scheduling between the United States and the United Kingdom forced us to reschedule twice and finally cancel. Despite the challenges I have faced in writing the blog article and communicating internationally, the information I have learned from my research has been extremely interesting. The methodology is thorough and can be used to train a diverse team of economists, gender experts, and entrepreneurs on how to overcome the barriers preventing women entrepreneurs in a particular region. As a result women can grow their businesses, earn money for their families, employ more workers, and improve the overall economy of the community. Hello!
For several weeks now I have virtually been in Mexico. By that I do not mean that I am packing, practicing my Spanish, or buying plane tickets, but instead that I have been in contact on a weekly basis, through Skype and email, with my team members in Mexico City. Instead of traveling for my internship with Value for Women this summer, I will be working virtually. However, Value for Women is an international organization and much of the work that I do, while based in my off-campus house in Somerville, Massachusetts, will focus on promoting women entrepreneurs in Mexico and Latin America. Last summer I worked with social entrepreneurs at Ashoka Thailand, but interning with Value for Women is the first time I have focused on the issue of gender. Gender is a particularly important issue, however, because only 35% of entrepreneurs in emerging markets are women. Helping to support women entrepreneurs is an excellent way to raise families out of poverty and promote sustainable development. Value for Women provides both research and development as well as capacity development and technical support to directly help women-led enterprises. Although I am not traveling, my weekly communications with the other members of the Value for Women and Enterprise Project Ventures (epven) team spreads several continents. Team members are located in London and Mexico City and frequent travel often leaves them Skyping in to meetings from Guatemala, Mali, and Turkey. So far, my work has focused on Mexico, as I am researching metrics for a partnership with Banorte and supporting a research and development project on small and growing businesses (SGB) led by women in Mexico. My learning about monitoring and evaluation with BUILD has helped me with the work on gender metrics I am conducting at Value for Women. In addition, my furthered understanding of metrics will hopefully be useful for the monitoring and evaluation we will be doing at BUILD next semester. While analyzing and consolidating notes from the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) Metrics Conference I noticed some of the challenges existing metrics have to measuring the most effective data. I am excited to continue learning about metrics and women entrepreneurs with Value for Women, and grateful for the support from BUILD and Empower. |
Annabelle RobertsThis summer Annabelle is interning at Value For Women with support from both BUILD and Empower. Annabelle is based in Boston for the summer and can be reached at [email protected] ArchivesCategories |