Katherine Hay is Senior Program Officer from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New Delhi, India

This series of video clips presents highlights from Katherine's talk From Proving to Improving: Prioritizing Adaptive and Nimble Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for Learning. Katherine Hay talks about the challenges and opportunities of using monitoring and evaluation in open systems, drawing on examples from public health programming in India. She describes implementation approaches that entail working through, or with, government for impact at scale. Hay argues that for evaluation to align with developmental implementation, it should move from a focus on ‘proving’ (through impact oriented designs) towards a stronger focus on ‘improving, adjusting, and using.’ The presentation provided key insights including:

• The difference between clarity and certainty in the work of an evaluator,

• The role of evidence in policy and what shapes decision making,

• The trade-offs required to demonstrate causality,

• The importance of strong leadership and evaluations for accountability

• Additional lessons for evaluators about the ‘know-do’ gap.

Jodeme Goldhar is Lead, Health System Integration for Complex Populations and Primary Care for the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre, and Planning Lead for Health Links.

Jodeme provided a response to the presentation and provided insights about:

• Showing directional impact and leading through ambiguity.

These short video clips highlight the know-do gap theme of the workshop.  Within that theme Hay distinguishes between different types of knowledge, and when and how they can have value. Each of the videos touches upon a natural tension that is a part of monitoring, learning and evaluating.  Throughout the presentation we learn that  “knowing is nice but using is better”.
Thanks to all who participated in the workshop. It was an excellent opportunity to share ideas and discuss evaluation approaches that can help address a range of policy issues and community problems. We hope to see you again soon.