This presentation outlines how the Independent Evaluation Group uses social media and social networks to make its evaluations transparent and participatory. It provides practical examples of how social media was utilized in evaluation studies to gather qualitative and quantitative data.

1. Making Evaluations Transparent, Participatory and
Relevant in a Networked World:
Use of Social Media in Development Evaluation
Alex McKenzie and Bahar Salimova
Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank
EES Conference, Helsinki, Finland
October 4, 2012

2. Outline
I. About IEG
II. Greater Use of Evaluation Findings
III. Social Media and Categories of Participants
IV. IEG’s Social Media Strategy and Approaches
V. Lessons and Challenges
2

3. I. About IEG
►Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) at the
World Bank Group; It reports to the Board of
Directors
►Assesses what works and what doesn’t
►Accountability and Learning
3

4. II. Greater Use of Evaluation Findings
►Several “Knowledge for Action” theories
►Focusing on approaches putting users/people
and engagement objectives first (POST method)
►Emphasizing value of relationships : building
“communal” relationships
4

5. III. Social Media and Categories of
Participants
90-9-1 rule
•90 percent - only consume posted content, 9
percent - prioritizes their engagement, and
1 percent - contributes most of the content.
Q: H do you get to 9 -1 percent and
ow
create influencers?
Q: H does one create
ow
“groundswell”?
5

6. IV. IEG’s Social Media Strategy and
Approaches
• Announcements via SM channels [FB,
Outreach Twitter, YouTube, SlideShare]
• Huffington Post & Guardian (UK)
[blogs]
• Short and long term outreach
Engagement campaigns. Examples: Forest
Evaluation vs. Afghanistan CPE
• “Gender & Evaluation Workshop”
Learning
[Ning]
6

7. IEG on Facebook
Over 15,000 fans with active discussions and polls
7

8. IEG on YouTube
8

9. Afghanistan Country Program Evaluation
Short term outreach campaign that lasted 3 months. Key
activities included:
►Facebook Polls and Discussions/Comments
►Dedicated Twitter hashtags - #AfghanistanEval and #Afghanistan to
generate interest and follow-up
►Questions and comments in Dari, Pashto and English to tap into local
knowledge
Outcome:
Generated over 1,950 poll votes and 50 comments in 3 months outreach
9

10. Afghanistan Country Program Evaluation
10

11. Afghanistan Country Program Evaluation
 Comment from a Facebook user on access to education in
Afghanistan:
“in terms of education, Afghans have a lot more access than they had 5 years
ago. Filing of 160,000 applications for Kankor exam this year could be
counted as a success and achievement of Afghans compared to 5 years
ago.”
 Comment from a Facebook user on access to health in
Afghanistan:
“ unfortunately most of these works [health improvement projects] are limited
and they remain only on a piece of paper instead of being implemented. A
good example is our district, where nothing has been done yet …”
Comment from a user from Ahmad Abad district, Paktia province.
[Comment translated from Pashto]
11

12. Forest Evaluation
Long term campaign started in September 2011. Key activities included:
 Building a community on Facebook and reaching out to existing
communities on LinkedIn.
 Set up a stand-alone Facebook page vs. using IEG’s Facebook page.
Outcomes:
 Four polls that generated over 720 votes/responses
 Over 100 comments on open-ended questions, mostly on LinkedIn
networks
 Over 6,000 followers on Facebook
12

13. Forest Evaluation
► Facebook Demographic
13

14. Forest Evaluation
► LinkedIn groups targeting main stakeholders. Two most active groups were:
REDD + Network
Natural Resource
Management
Professionals Group
14

15. Forest Evaluation
Comments from LinkedIn
► "In Nicaragua, for example, part of the Bosawas Reserve that is managed
by the indigenous community was deforested 16 times less than the
surrounding area. In Brazil, Alto Juruá, the oldest extractive reserve in the
country, maintained 99 percent of its forest cover 10 years after it was
created. Forests were protected while income diversification appears to
have improved the livelihoods of local residents." - Comment on LinkedIn
by a user who is the President at Satya Development International LLC.
► "My experience with the private forest contractors has been a depressing
one. The forest contractors have played havoc with forest wealth in
Pakistan, either working under the government forest departments or
under the autonomous forest corporations. They have plundered and
exploited the forest dependent communities as well." - Comment from a
LinkedIn user from Pakistan.
15

16. Forest Evaluation
Facebook Poll
16

17. Gender Study
Employed blend of outreach and learning events:
 Shared findings through videos, pictures, web content
 Two learning workshops in Asia and Africa
 Online discussions following up learning workshops in the regions
 Video Conferences with 12 country stakeholders
Outcomes:
 Social collaboration platform with over 300 users
 Knowledge document reflecting recommendations and discussions from
workshops, online discussions and video-conference
 Collaboration between a donor and country office to follow up with training
needs
17

18. Gender Study
18

19. V. Lessons Learned
► Need to deepen relationships with social media consumers
► Team up with enthusiastic evaluation teams to champion social
media work
► Share knowledge relevant to followers and add to existing
conversations
► Create shorter and more visual content
► Building relationships and communities takes time and
commitment
19

20. V. Challenges
► Finding the right voice and balance in sharing content and
engaging
► Mainstreaming evaluative work through social media in different
cycles
► Working with Corporate Procurement, Information Security, and
Public Relations
20

21. Thank you!
Alex McKenzie amckenzie@worldbank.org
Bahar Salimova bsalimova@worldbank.org
Follow us on
Twitter @WorldBank_IEG
Facebook @ www.facebook.com/IndependentEvaluationGroup
21