1. Needs assessment and evaluation : service improvement and women
Professor Gill Scott
Director, Scottish Poverty Information Unit
School of Law and Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University

2. Context Competing expectations of needs assessment and evaluation
Technical demands
Aids economic allocation
Increases accountability
Policy/ Service enhancement
Understanding how a situation arose and opportunities for change
Understanding how a service/ policy works
Basis of service development

3. Stages
“If you don’t know where you’re going how will you know if you get there?”
Outset - needs assessment( & ex ante evaluation?)
Extent of problem for women and differences between men and women
Reasons for existence - relationship and existing service analysis
Scope for change
To inform intervention logic, programme instruments & anticipated outcomes for women
Outcomes and impact – evaluation
Final and interim evaluations
Indicators : inputs, outputs, results and impacts on women (nb race, disability)

4. Define issues and goals
What is the policy trying to achieve
Understand different problems and concerns for men and women
Collect data
Gather gender, race and disability disaggregated data
Consult experts, women and men, BME groups, disability groups
Develop options
Determine impact for different groups
Offer real choices
Remove stereotypes
Communicate
Design of different strategies
Use inclusive language
Monitor
Use the community
Develop hard and soft indicators
Examine differential impact
Evaluate
Assess equality impact
Learn lessons
Spread best practice
Virtuous Circle
Source: Women and Equality Unit 2001

5. Challenges
Gendered breakdowns are seldom available at local level, often have gaps, are in an unusable form and not consistent
Over-reliance on statistical data
Lack of local voices means it becomes difficult to avoid passive approach or develop local trust
Needs analysis and evaluation too often not connected
Under-use of needs analysis and evaluation to provide evidence of what works for wider learning

6. Gendered indicators Disaggregated - gender, race and disability
Key to usefulness
Easily understood
Credible
Simple
Communicable
Relevant/ sensitive to the situation to be addressed and intervention
Gender equality indicators for Northern Ireland - ‘ little clarity over which are key for evaluating equality’
Regeneration agencies in Scotland- disaggregated data in education and employment but little else - violence, gender stereotypes, decision making?

7. Over reliance on statistical data
Value of different methods of collecting data
Quality of info and way it is presented matter
Photos, community walk, video (nb DEEP Welsh EQUAL DP)
Models from development organisations can be useful source e.g. OXFAM

8. Local involvement
Needs assessment and evaluation works best when local community, local services and women are involved.
Respect and empowerment both important. Not just an issue of distribution
‘Women and Children’s Poverty - Making the Links’ (2005): Involved workshops across the country to identify the needs of women in relation to local and national policy
Barr (1996)‘ Essential that basis for evaluation is negotiated with community’
Involvement and honesty are important for developing trust. Communication.
Feedback at all stages helps the process of policy formulation, implementation, evaluation and further service development

9. Integration in planning cycle
Prioritisation will always need to be undertaken but gender sensitive NA and Evaluation can help identify which issues to take forward and how. Plus if done effectively key stakeholders will support change
Thurrock Gender Mainstreaming Project
Questions to be addressed.
Does planned or achieved intervention promote gender equality?
Are/were activities designed to be appropriate for women and are/ were they adequate to achieve gender equality?
Outputs fairly distributed between men and women? Adequate to achieve gender equality?
Are the inputs adequate to achieve gender equality in service and outcomes?
Identifying the potential and need for change

10. A local issue or lessons for all?
Promise of needs assessment and evaluation
Allows assessment of effectiveness of promising approaches
Can help to distil their critical elements
Can provide real basis for promoting gender focused change