Gender-Responsive Evaluation for Development Programmes Training Course

Course overview

Development programmes can report aggregate results while still missing who benefited, who was excluded, and whether an intervention changed unequal power relations. Evaluators and programme teams are increasingly required to demonstrate credible gender results to donors, governments, and affected communities, yet many evaluation designs treat gender as a disaggregated-data requirement rather than an analytical lens. This course addresses the practical challenge of designing and conducting evaluations that test gender-related assumptions, identify differential effects, and produce findings decision-makers can use.

Participants learn to apply a gender-responsive evaluation approach across the evaluation cycle: commissioning, design, data collection, analysis, reporting, and use. The course covers gender analysis frameworks, theory of change review, stakeholder and power mapping, gender-responsive evaluation questions, sampling strategies, ethical protocols, mixed-methods data collection, and intersectional analysis. Participants practise assessing evaluation terms of reference, building an evaluation matrix, developing indicators that capture agency and structural change, and framing evidence-based recommendations.

Teaching combines instructor-led method demonstrations with development and humanitarian case work in sectors such as livelihoods, health, protection, and education. Working in teams, participants critique a conventional evaluation design and redesign it using gender-responsive methods. Each participant leaves with a gender-responsive evaluation package for a real or simulated programme: revised evaluation questions, an evaluation matrix, sampling and data-collection plan, safeguarding measures, and a reporting outline that links findings to actionable recommendations.

The course is designed for professionals who already work with programme evidence and need to strengthen the quality, credibility, and practical use of gender analysis in evaluation assignments.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply a gender analysis framework to identify roles, access, control, norms, and power relations relevant to an evaluation.
• Formulate gender-responsive evaluation questions using OECD DAC criteria and intersectional analysis.
• Build an evaluation matrix that links questions, indicators, data sources, methods, and gender-disaggregated analysis.
• Review a theory of change to test gender assumptions, causal pathways, risks, and unintended effects.
• Design purposive and inclusive sampling strategies for women, men, girls, boys, and marginalised groups.
• Develop ethical data-collection protocols covering informed consent, confidentiality, referral pathways, and do-no-harm safeguards.
• Analyse qualitative and quantitative evidence to identify differential outcomes, contribution, and changes in agency or power.
• Produce gender-responsive findings, conclusions, and recommendations in a decision-focused evaluation report structure.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Monitoring and Evaluation Officers — who need to integrate gender analysis into programme evaluation plans and evidence products.
• Evaluation Consultants — who design and deliver donor-funded evaluations and must demonstrate credible gender-responsive methods.
• Gender Equality Advisers — who need to assure that evaluations test gender outcomes rather than only count female participants.
• Programme Managers — who commission evaluations and need evidence for programme adaptation, scale-up, or redesign.
• Research and Learning Specialists — who develop mixed-methods studies and translate findings into organisational learning.
• Humanitarian Accountability Officers — who assess whether services are safe, accessible, and equitable for affected groups.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with the evaluation cycle, including terms of reference, evaluation questions, indicators, data collection, and basic reporting. Experience supporting or managing a development or humanitarian programme is strongly recommended. Participants should be able to read a logical framework or theory of change and interpret simple disaggregated tables in Excel. No advanced statistics, econometrics, specialist gender studies qualification, or prior use of qualitative-analysis software is required. Those new to gender concepts should expect pre-course reading on gender equality, intersectionality, and safeguarding terminology.

Training methodology

Facilitators use short method briefings followed by guided application to a development programme case and participants’ own work context. Teams review a theory of change, map stakeholders and power, rewrite evaluation questions, construct an evaluation matrix, and test sampling and interview tools against safeguarding scenarios. Case material includes incomplete disaggregated data and conflicting stakeholder accounts, requiring participants to triangulate evidence. Daily peer review strengthens technical judgement, and the final session converts each participant’s draft evaluation package into an application plan for an upcoming assignment.

Course outline

Day 1: Foundations of gender-responsive evaluation

• Gender equality, equity, inclusion, and intersectionality in evaluation
• Gender-responsive evaluation principles and evaluator responsibilities
• OECD DAC evaluation criteria through a gender lens
• UNEG Norms and Standards for gender equality and human rights
• Gender analysis frameworks: roles, resources, decision-making, and norms
• Stakeholder, rights-holder, and duty-bearer power mapping
• Recognising gender-blind assumptions in programme documentation

Workshop: Participants analyse a livelihoods programme brief and produce a stakeholder-power map identifying likely gendered barriers and evidence gaps.

Day 2: Designing gender-responsive evaluations

• Reviewing theories of change for gender assumptions and causal pathways
• Formulating gender-responsive evaluation questions
• Integrating intersectionality into evaluation scope and criteria
• Developing indicators for access, agency, norms, and structural change
• Constructing a gender-responsive evaluation matrix
• Selecting mixed methods for complex gender outcomes
• Assessing evaluation terms of reference for gender quality

Workshop: Participants redesign a gender-blind evaluation terms of reference and produce revised questions, indicators, and an evaluation matrix.

Day 3: Inclusive data collection and ethical fieldwork

• Purposive, stratified, and snowball sampling for under-represented groups
• Sex, age, disability, and diversity disaggregation planning
• Gender-sensitive survey design and response-option testing
• Focus group and key informant interview protocols
• Safe facilitation techniques for sensitive discussions
• Informed consent, confidentiality, and data protection
• Do-no-harm risk assessment and referral pathways

Workshop: Participants develop a sampling frame, interview guide, consent script, and safeguarding risk register for a protection programme evaluation.

Day 4: Gender-responsive analysis and judgement

• Data quality checks for disaggregated quantitative data
• Cross-tabulation in Microsoft Excel for differential outcome analysis
• Qualitative coding of agency, norms, and decision-making evidence
• Triangulating survey, interview, observation, and document evidence
• Analysing intended and unintended gender effects
• Contribution analysis for gender-related causal claims
• Using evaluative rubrics to reach transparent judgements

Workshop: Participants analyse a case dataset and interview excerpts, then produce a triangulated finding on differential programme outcomes.

Day 5: Reporting, use, and evaluation quality assurance

• Writing findings that distinguish evidence, interpretation, and judgement
• Presenting gender-disaggregated results in tables, charts, and narratives
• Developing conclusions on relevance, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability
• Formulating feasible gender-responsive recommendations
• Planning participatory validation with rights-holders and stakeholders
• Applying a gender-responsive evaluation quality-assurance checklist
• Creating a management response and evaluation-use plan

Workshop: Participants complete and peer-review a gender-responsive evaluation package, then prepare a 90-day plan for applying it to a live or forthcoming evaluation.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, KoboToolbox, OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria, UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions