1. THE INCLUSION MODEL
Targeted to female soldiers, disabled veterans, and security officers
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Methodology
‘The Inclusion Model ‘ goal is to include female soldiers, disabled veterans, and
security officers in the evaluation practice with the scope to increase the usefulness of
the collection of the lessons learned, the relevance of the project to the community of
interest, the accuracy of results and, in the long term, the promotion of social justice
by giving recipients a voice in program decision making.
Author of Project Proposal: Laura Gagliardone
Conceptualized in 2012 and reviewed in 2014

2. THE INCLUSION MODEL
TARGETED TO FEMALE SOLDIERS, DISABLED VETERANS, AND SECURITY OFFICERS
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Methodology
Author of the Project Proposal: Laura Gagliardone
The experience I have acquired in research and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of
international programs and my knowledge about cross-cutting issues have allowed me to
conceptualize a simple project, entitled ‘The Inclusion Model’. It has to be structured with the
team members and then utilized to conduct applied research, analysis, and evaluation of the
soldiers and security officers’ experiences in the field. Women, disabled veterans, and security
officers have to be given special focus in order to prevent isolation and suicide.
‘The Inclusion Model’ goal is to include female soldiers, disabled veterans, and security officers
in the evaluation process in order to increase the accuracy of the information collected and the
lessons learned, the relevance of the project to the community of interest and, as ultimate scope,
the promotion of social justice by giving recipients a voice in decision making.
A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life
activities. Unfortunately, soldiers and security officers who serve the United States in the field can
experience abuses and violence and that affects their psychological wellbeing until they are no
more able to have a normal life when they get back home. Therefore putting some of them in
control of research is necessary to shift the perspective from the simple medical model to the
social model whereby disability becomes a problem in sociality and in establishing relationships.
Obviously, there are several challenges that need to be faced, for example people with disabilities
may not even recognize their own problem or may encounter a wide range of cognitive abilities
or preferences for how to communicate. They could prefer writing instead of speaking and
sometime words and concepts could be misleading or confusing to the researchers and
evaluators. Therefore it is important that researches are aware that obtaining a response from an
interviewee does not necessarily mean that she or he understands exactly what has been asked,
especially if the participants are not familiar with the evaluation techniques. In addition, some
people with certain psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar or schizophrenia, demonstrate
impairments in verbal and nonverbal communication as part of their condition (to be continued).
‘The Inclusion Model’ also takes into account the feasibility of inclusion: adequate tools,
resources, evaluators’ training, participants’ characteristics, and program context. If perceived
benefits are high, evaluators may be convinced that inclusion is worth investing in, even if it is
perceived to be costly (to be continued).
Evaluators may encounter certain challenges to collect data in some contexts, and they have
various strategies to draw on when this occurs (to be continued). Finally, the validity of data
collection methods should be studied further to ensure that recipient voices, when included, are
accurately represented, especially in evaluations where this is the only way recipients are involved
in. Evaluators should ensure that inclusion is designed strategically to achieve the desired goal of
participation, and should focus energy and resources accordingly (to be continued).