Impact: So What? Measuring and Learning around Accountability

Ecosystem Op-Eds, Guest PostsBy admin2 May 1, 2015

The Accountability Lab and Feedback Labs recently co-hosted an event at the OpenGov Hub in Washington, DC entitled “Impact: So What?” The idea was to generate an honest conversation around how we are measuring impact in the accountability and transparency space and what we can collectively learn from this process to help us improve. Preceded by a Twitter chat (#impactchat) and a twin event at the OpenGov Hub Kathmandu, the discussion brought together a diverse crowd of activists, non-profits, policymakers and donors.

Using Healthcare Narrative Methods to Improve Outcomes

Ecosystem Op-Eds, Guest PostsBy admin2 April 23, 2015

In healthcare, numbers matter. They are the measures of physical condition – blood pressure, temperature, height and weight – in a patient profile. They govern the amount of time a provider spends with each patient daily in order to elicit the information needed for assessments and diagnoses.
Increasingly, research shows that a vital aspect of that information is the patient context: the environments, values, relationships and experiences that shape who patients are and how they live. This context directly impacts health, and shapes the challenges patients face in striving to be well; communicating about life outside the four walls of healthcare is thus integral to healthcare that addresses patients’ individual needs.

OPIC and Liberia: Citizen Feedback to Protect Human Rights in Emerging Market Projects

Ecosystem Op-Eds, Guest PostsBy admin2 February 24, 2015

Increasing visibility and awareness of international principles of human rights is creating new opportunities and challenges for channels of citizen feedback. The roles and responsibilities that governments and businesses have with respect to human rights are becoming increasingly recognized internationally. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (so-called “Ruggie Principles”) include operational principles around three pillars –the State duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect, and access to remedy. Businesses are increasingly recognizing that there are financial risks associated with conflicts around human rights issues.

Enabling donors to make better decisions: meta-research to the rescue!

Ecosystem Op-Eds, Guest PostsBy admin2 February 13, 2015

Charities produce masses of evidence about their effectiveness but we suspect that much of that research is missing, ropey, unclear or you can’t find it. It’s thought that fully 85% of all medical research is wasted in ways like this. This damages beneficiaries in two ways. First, donors and other operational charities can’t reliably get feedback on whether a particular type of work is effective, so may avoidably implement or fund something suboptimal. And second, the research consumes resources which could perhaps be better spent delivering something which does work.

Closing the Citizen Feedback Loop

Ecosystem Op-Eds, Guest PostsBy admin2 October 27, 2014

These are the three questions that should be at the center of any funder’s strategy and operations. Yet they are far from the radar screen of many funders and implementing organizations, both domestic and international. Feedback Labs, with founding members Keystone Accountability, GlobalGiving, Development Gateway, Ashoka, Frontline SMS, Twaweza,Ushahidi, and GroundTruth, are committed to helping funders find out and act on the answers to these questions.