Students learned about the need and importance of evaluation and its role in promoting learning, accountability, and teamwork. Students developed project proposals in three themes, Climate, Change, Education and Literacy, and Leadership Development. They discussed the need for evidence-based decision making as well as the role of authentic Data and design projects. Students discussed results-based management and the different principles that contribute to an effective and impactful project. They learned about different types of evaluation and the criteria that OECD uses for evaluating projects as well the difference between outputs and outcomes.

Students not only discussed but also developed robust problem statements, as well as learned and reflected on drafting problem and solution trees. They learned how to analyze the problem, to probe one’s assumptions, develop an objective phase, study the feasibility of a project, the cost-benefit analysis as well as stakeholder inclusion. Importantly, students discussed the importance of the theory of change for their respective projects. Students also learned about designing a results-based framework and reflected on they need a new value to set, clear, baselines, indicators, and targets for the projects. Finally, students learned about different data collection, methods, such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, and existing data, etc. They also identified most relevant data collection methods for their projects.