Ha. The title probably got you excited didn’t it? You thought we might be able to report something about our evaluation results from December? Well, we will, not right now though. The results are in, but they’re only in to us. We’re working feverishly to get the results ready for you to look at.
Last week we received a 42-page report from our evaluators. It’s got good news, it’s got bad news, and frankly, it’s got some news that we’re not sure we understand, nor can explain well to people. We’re working through those last two before we’re ready to share with the world.
It’s very very exciting though, and I can say that the report is nothing like anything I’ve seen from other organizations like ours. Our evaluators really had a lot to say about Nuru itself, the community where we work, and the metrics system we put into use last year. I must point out that the “Nuru itself” critiques were extra credit within the context of the report, but we gladly take all of the critiques. Our two evaluators are smart and experienced people who most importantly do not work for Nuru, so, they were able to look at us pretty objectively. Truly, I’m very excited to share this report.
In other news, David Carreon, our new Research Officer, is hard at work on the ground in Kenya getting our Poverty Intelligence Network and the tools he needs for this in place. He’ll post some more information on that for us here next week.
Also, Stephanie (our Senior Research Officer) and I met face-to-face in California last week to go over all kinds of exciting topics, most importantly the evaluators’ report. In addition to the report review, I got to meet our student interns who are working on our M&E system overhaul under Stephanie’s management. Stephanie had told me that they each “think differently” about this system and what it will be, and having a face-to-face conversation with each of them really drove that point home. It’s so exciting to have such brains on this topic. They each think of something different and are working on such a variety of findings.
Finally, this is my favorite non-Nuru blog: From Poverty to Power. I’ve been waiting for a good segue to mention the blog, but haven’t found one. I just wanted to say that I read it every day, and it is really great. Duncan Green is funny and insightful. He’s British. Which helps.
Thanks for reading!