Developing and refining methods for comparative cross-national research on poverty and vulnerability: Drawing on Young Lives' and WeD's experiences

Lead Research Organisation: University of East Anglia
Department Name: International Development

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description The grant enables the communication of methodological and logistical lessons learnt from the experiences of two comparative cross-national studies of poverty and vulnerability in developing countries: Young Lives, www.younglives.org, and the Wellbeing in Developing Countries ESRC research group, www.welldev.org.uk/research/research.htm through a range of media. Planned outputs included an online toolkit (see www.younglives.org.uk/what-we-do/research-methods/methods-toolkit), an NRCM review paper, an edited methodological volume (now published: 'Research in International Development: a critical review', alongside a second co-edited volume 'Mixed methods research in poverty and vulnerability: sharing ideas and learning lessons' in press and a third providing an overview of current research on wellbeing and quality of life globally 'Global Handbook of Wellbeing and Quality of Life', which builds on chapters and encyclopedia entries addressing these themes), and training and capacity building (e.g. two bespoke courses for CGIAR on research design and analysis in comparative cross-national projects, one of which is now being offered as a short course www.uea.ac.uk/international-development/dev-co/professional-training/researching-gender-concepts-and-methods; four workshops on research ethics and one on impact evaluation for postgraduate research students; six data user workshops in the four Young Lives countries, the UK and the USA).

In the third year the grant was used to develop a cross-nationally comparative measure of young people's social and cultural competencies (non-cognitive skills), which could potentially be included in nationally representative surveys/ specific studies to map outcomes and evaluate impact. The measure was piloted using cognitive debriefing techniques (reported in Camfield, L. 'Enquries in wellbeing: how could qualitative data be used to improve reliability of survey data' in White et al., Wellbeing: Culture, methodology and politics, a further manuscript is in preparation) and administered to 683 young people participating in the Awethu micro-entrepreneurship programme in Johannesburg. It has been psychometrically validated to enable it to be used in other studies (manuscript in preparation; instrument and validation datasets available from author on request).

Achievements during the life of the grant included the two edited methodological volumes described above, published with Palgrave Macmillan, and the other edited collection on methodological aspects of wellbeing and quality of life worldwide, published with Springer. I co-organised an international workshop on mixed methods research in poverty and vulnerability focusing on poverty measurement, poverty dynamics, and impact evaluation (keynote speakers included Professors Janet Seeley and James Copestake), and edited or co-edited five journal special issues/sections in Progress in Development Studies, Journal of Development Studies and European Journal of Development Research (these addressed youth transitions (EJDR 2011) and methodological issues in relation to qualitative and quantitative research and impact evaluation (EJDR 2014, JDS, PIDS, JDeff)).
The grant enabled me to secure additional funding from my department for the 'As well as the subject' research network https://www.uea.ac.uk/international-development/dev-co/additional-dimensions-in-development-research-ethics (with Richard Palmer-Jones) and a political economy of evaluation analysis for the Centre for Development Impact (with Maren Duvendack and Brendan Whitty). The Co-I and I also successfully applied for an ESRC Research Synthesis Award on research methodology (2014-15, £30,000) which will be published as part of an EADI edited volume on the current state of development studies in 2018.

Other activities where my time was funded by the grant included developing a new book series for Palgrave Macmillan entitled 'Anthropology, Change and Development' (co-editors Catherine Locke and Lan Hoang). This was launched in 2014 with two edited collections on exploring uncertainty in contemporary Africa (Liz Cooper and David Pratten) and theatre in development (Alex Flynn and Jonas Tinius), followed by three further volumes entitled Decentring Development (Tanya Jakimow), Transnational Labour Migration, Remittances and the Changing Family in Asia (Lan Anh Hoang, Brenda S. A. Yeoh) and Young people's daily mobilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Moving Young Lives (Gina Porter et al) .

The connection between my initial grant and my proposals for further funding is the way the work funded by this grant fed into broader trends, for example, a growing interest in mixed methods and interdisciplinary studies to address complex social problems and evaluate the impact of interventions. The types of issues these raised in relation to research are summarised in the talk I gave in an African Universities' Research Approaches programme (AURA) capacity building event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlkZ7LnZxxI). In the talk I discuss some of the key findings from this programme around different forms of interdisciplinarity - their value and their challenges (for example, how do you overcome a fundamental epistemological difference around the extent to which researchers believe that the data is not collected, but is actually generated through the interactions that produce it) and the fact that the nature of the problems that we encounter as researchers and as evaluators are increasingly complex and complicated. Research strategies can reflect this complexity, but often at the cost of having research programmes that are hard to operationalise and whose outputs are cannot be easily communicated to stakeholders. Finally, I discuss some important practical considerations, the effects of which are shown by the results of the ESRA review, which relate to the effects of team hierarchies and differing incentive structures across international teams, and encouraging a spirit of inter-disciplinarity among researchers of the future.

I continue to work with colleagues at UEA on impact evaluation short courses and masters' programme and in co-authoring 'Impact Evaluation for International Development: The Essential Guide', which will be published by Routledge in 2018. I have provided bespoke training in qualitative and mixed methods impact evaluation training, including to Ugandan government officials (funded by GIZ) and am also collaborating with the DFID-funded Centre for Development Impact http://www.ids.ac.uk/cdi (I spoke on rigour in qualitative research at their launch event in 2013, see IDS Bulletin article, 2015). This collaboration has involved co-organising three event on ethics in impact evaluation in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and publishing a special section in the Journal of Development Effectiveness, which included research commissioned by DFID. According to then then Head of Evaluation, Penny Hawkins, these events have to some extent shaped DFID's approach to ethics within research and evaluation.

As co-chair of the EADI/DSA Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Dynamics study group I have convened four DSA panels on additional dimensions in development research ethics, mixed methods research in poverty and vulnerability, the use of evidence in multidimensional poverty, and non-experimental approaches to impact evaluation, and an international workshop on 'Rethinking international development' which attracted young scholars from across Europe. I also organised a public event on understanding wellbeing in developing countries at the 2014 Festival of Social Science.

In addition to the reflection on methods described above, I conducted fieldwork in Uganda and South Africa during summer 2013 and 2015 which involved collecting two rounds of life histories of young entrepreneurs in Uganda, focusing on their skills development, conducting focus groups with young entrepreneurs in Uganda and South Africa about the skills they need to be successful in their work and how these have developed, and adapting, piloting and administering a measure of non-cognitive skills to young entrepreneurs in South Africa. The data from these activities will be the basis for two empirical papers which are currently being drafted for submission to World Development and Development in Change (some preliminary analyses were included in the aforementioned chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics and a paper on Social Anthropology, both 2015). I have also used these datasets in teaching postgraduates and plan to deposit them by the end of 2017. With colleagues at UEA I was successful in securing funding for interdisciplinary research on adaption to climate change in semi-arid regions (https://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2014/March/africa-climate-change-adaptation) and for the Global Girls' Research Initiative (now Gender and Adolescence: Global evidence). In both programmes my role is one of methodological oversight and capacity strengthening, specifically in relation to mixed methods and the operationalisation of wellbeing.

I was appointed as an academic member of ESRC Peer Review College (2012 onwards) and joined the panel to review the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics in 2014. I have also reviewed grants and participated in grant assessment panels and evaluations of research impact for ESPA, the EU, and various Northern European research councils. Finally, I am collaborating with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) on a project that involves creating a measure to enable the outcomes of diverse interventions to be compared and related to people's priorities (see McGregor et al, 2015a,b). This builds on previous work carried out as part of this grant using qualitative data to generate measures or select indicators that better reflect what people value and 'weight' responses about how satisfied they are with this area of life (see, for example, papers on the WeDQoL-Goals, the GPGI, and children's understandings of poverty in Ethiopia).
Exploitation Route The findings and outputs of the grant have been more wide ranging than expected, however, they have clearly contributed to core areas of interest to academics, practitioners and policy makers such as strategies to ensure the rigor of qualitative and mixed methods research and evaluation (for example, the two edited volumes on this topic); research governance, in particular ethics and access to data (for example, the PIDS special issue and CDI ethics workshops) and the political economy considerations that can act as barriers to these; and advancing understandings of wellbeing at a conceptual and methodological level (for example, the work with ODI and ASSAR in relation to climate adaptation, the chapter in White et al). There are also non-academic outputs in the form of databases with longitudinal interviews with Uganda entrepreneurs and focus groups with Ugandan and South African entrepreneurs, which will be deposited with UKDS, and a pychometrically validated tool to measure non-cognitive skills among entrepreneurs. Finally, the grant generated a great deal of training material that has been shared not only with students (postgraduate taught and research) but also with research and evaluation practitioners internationally through various short courses, webinars and soon more extensively through collaboration with GAGE and other capacity strengthening initiatives.
Sectors Other
URL https://www.uea.ac.uk/international-development/dev-co/additional-dimensions-in-development-research-ethics
 
Description Considerable progress has been made on the main objective of the grant, which is to share methodological learning from the use of mixed-methods research in contexts of poverty and vulnerability in developing countries. This has been done through events, articles, journal special issues, and most importantly mentoring of researchers and practitioners through short courses, graduate teaching and project workshops for GAGE, a longitudinal mixed methods study across multiple countries in the global South. Areas addressed by the grant include enhancing measures of poverty and methods for impact evaluation (for example, through work with DFID-funded Centre for Development Impact http://www.ids.ac.uk/cdi). It also includes increasing understanding of poverty dynamics, for example, by developing a measure of non-cognitive skills for use with young people and a protocol for the adaptation of similar measures in developing countries (the use of cognitive debriefing techniques will be discussed in a paper to be drafted in 2017) and ongoing work as convener of the DSA/EADI Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Dynamics group. The work funded by the grant feeds into broader trends, for example, a growing interest in mixed methods and interdisciplinary studies to address complex social problems and evaluate the impact of interventions. I continue to work with colleagues at UEA on impact evaluation short courses and masters programme and in co-authoring 'Impact Evaluation for International Development: The Essential Guide' which will be published by Routledge in 2018. I have provided impact evaluation training to Uganda government officials (funded by GIZ) and DFID evaluation officers on the evaluation of small n interventions, building on a new short course I first delivered in June 2014 with Maren Duvendack. I have co-organised three events on ethics in impact evaluation with CDI (September 2014, January 2015, and March 2016), followed by a special section in JDeff which have influenced DFID and 3ie policy on this issue. In relation to ethics, I have shaped the redrafting of the ESRC Research Ethics framework and taken this learning to my own institution to revise their policies and procedures. I am progressing the comparative dimension of the grant through work on the Anthropology, Change and Development book series which supports authors engaging in comparative analysis and advice to the CGIAR network on the GENNOVATE global comparative gender study.
First Year Of Impact 2013
Sector Other
Impact Types Societal,Policy & public services
 
Description Ethics in evaluation
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact I have co-organised three events on ethics in evaluation in 2014, 2015, and 2016, following an emerging agenda which is now looking at evaluation ethics in the context of the challenges presented by more inclusive methods. Two of the three events were attended by the Head of Evaluation from DFID, who also funded the events, and in this sense they have been feeding into DFID's own policy development in this area. We also published a special section in a leading Evaluation journal which included a paper from a DFID-funded review of guidance on ethics in evaluation. Finally, we supported a workshop and panel on ethical issues in evaluation at the 3ie What Works Global Summit Sept 2016 http://www.3ieimpact.org/en/events/3ie-conferences-and-workshops/wwgs/ with the DFID Head of Evaluation as a panel member.
URL http://cdimpact.org/events/event-archive
 
Description Research ethics
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact I worked with the ESRC on their revision of the Framework for Research Ethics which governs research in the UK and Europe (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/files/funding/guidance-for-applicants/summary-of-2015-revisions-to-the-esrc-framework-for-research-ethics/) and am currently working with my university on revising their research ethics policy.
URL http://www.esrc.ac.uk/files/funding/guidance-for-applicants/esrc-framework-for-research-ethics-2015/
 
Description As well as the subject : additional dimensions in research ethics
Amount £12,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of East Anglia 
Department International Development UEA (DEV)
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2011 
End 01/2012
 
Description DEVCo Surplus fund, impact evaluation research group
Amount £15,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of East Anglia 
Department School of International Development UEA
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2014 
End 07/2015
 
Description Evidence Sythnthesis Award, research methodology
Amount £24,000 (GBP)
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2014 
End 12/2014
 
Description GAGE-DFID RREF (Award for academic writing workshop)
Amount £32,805 (GBP)
Organisation Overseas Development Institute (ODI) 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2018 
End 01/2020
 
Title Psychometrically validated measure of non-cognitive skills 
Description This is a 14 item measure of non-cognitive skills originally developed with young South African entrepreneurs (~ 25-40 years). After psychometric validation (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), the measure comprised 14 items in two subscales measuring Confidence and Self-efficacy and Creativity, Perseverance and Passion (the subscale names come from the categories of skills discussed in the qualitative research). Both subscales demonstrated good internal reliability (Subscale 1 a = .74; Subscale 2 a = .88; Cronbach, 1951) and included items from the hope, self-esteem, decision-making and Big Five extraversion and conscientiousness subscales. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact None so far, aside from academic publication (OUP handbook chapter and forthcoming paper in World Development), as the measure is only now being shared with other research groups. 
 
Title Ugandan and South Africa entrepreneurs 
Description The database comprises three rounds of longitudinal data from Uganda entrepreneurs (two rounds collected by the PI) and focus groups with South African and Uganda entrepreneurs focusing on the skills they use in their work and how these were developed. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The database has been used as a teaching tool with postgraduate taught and research students and will be archived by the end of 2017 in UKDS. 
 
Description Centre for Development Impact 
Organisation Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Country India 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are the academic collaborator within a centre that includes a research institute and a consultancy. We collaborate on events (e.g. the UEA/CDI seminar series), publications, and consultancy (e.g. the award of the UNICEF LTA framework over the next three years).
Collaborator Contribution They provide communications support, venues for joint events, a means of publishing work through CDI practice and working papers, and opportunities to network with and influence others working in the field. We have also jointly applied for an ESRC-DFID grant but were unfortunately not successful.
Impact The IDS Bulletin article arose from an invitation to their inaugural conference and we have also collaborated extensively over the ethics (two workshops, one international conference, and a special section in an evaluation journal) and political economy of evaluation (two workshops).
Start Year 2014
 
Description Centre for Development Impact 
Organisation Institute of Development Studies
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are the academic collaborator within a centre that includes a research institute and a consultancy. We collaborate on events (e.g. the UEA/CDI seminar series), publications, and consultancy (e.g. the award of the UNICEF LTA framework over the next three years).
Collaborator Contribution They provide communications support, venues for joint events, a means of publishing work through CDI practice and working papers, and opportunities to network with and influence others working in the field. We have also jointly applied for an ESRC-DFID grant but were unfortunately not successful.
Impact The IDS Bulletin article arose from an invitation to their inaugural conference and we have also collaborated extensively over the ethics (two workshops, one international conference, and a special section in an evaluation journal) and political economy of evaluation (two workshops).
Start Year 2014
 
Description Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) (formerly Global Girls Research Initiative) 
Organisation Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution I contributed extensively to the success DFID tender and have now taken responsibility for capacity strengthening, ethics and integrating the qualitative and quantitative components of the research, drawing on my experiences in WeD and Young Lives.
Collaborator Contribution Opportunities for networking, workshopping and gaining further experience in the above areas through working on a complex comparative study with multiple country partners.
Impact The project commenced in November 2015 and has so far produced mainly internal reports as part of the finalisation of the Research Framework during the inception year. I have authored or co-authored guidance on ethics, qualitative data management, research capacity strengthening and working with mixed methods, and two reports from formative fieldwork in Bangladesh. This comparative study has now been given the go-ahead by DFID and will continue until at least 2025.
Start Year 2014
 
Description TIME Impact evaluation summer school 
Organisation Trinity College Dublin
Country Ireland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Delivered content on qualitative and mixed methods impact evaluation approaches
Collaborator Contribution Organising the course and providing the content on RCT approaches.
Impact The collaboration is multidisciplinary as it involves economists and other social sciences working together with policy makers and practitioners around the issue of rigorous evaluation. The course was attended by nearly 30 practitioners and academics keen to learn and debate different methodological approaches to improving the quality of evaluation.
Start Year 2017
 
Description ASSAR webinar on wellbeing and related Spotlight magazine editorial 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speaker at ASSAR webinar on wellbeing, 70 people, predominantly from East Africa, and subsequently wrote the editorial to the ASSAR spotlight magazine special issue of wellbeing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/notice/assar-webinar-adaptation-and-wellbeing-semi-arid-regions
 
Description Advising Tearfund on the development of the LIGHTWHEEL tool 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Provided guidance to Catriona Dejean and David Couzens of Tearfund - a large INGO - on how they could develop the LIGHTWHEEL evaluation tool. If my recommendations are adopted they will influence across the programme and the many communities that Tearfund work with.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
 
Description Advising on the design of a qualitative longitudinal evaluation study for UNICEF 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I participated in the design of the ToR, refinement of guidelines, and reviews of two round of outputs

To some extent my feedback improved the quality of the outputs, however, they also identified structural problems that limited the improvements which could be made
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description BEIS Peer Review Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Invited to join the UK government dept. BEIS's Peer Review Group to quality assure evaluation related proposals/ outputs
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018
 
Description Chaired DSA-ICEA masters dissertation prize committee, Cambridge 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact I chaired the DSA-ICEA panel for the award of the best post-graduate dissertation within development studies in 2015 and 2016 in conjunction with ICEA, a organisation of consulting economists. I also found a slot in the DSA conference panel I was chairing for the winner to present his thesis.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
URL http://www.icea.co.uk/whats-on
 
Description Co-directed two week course for researchers from World Fish, followed by supporting in research design and coding research data 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The course was attended by ~20 practitioners from World Fish institutions world wide who wanted to increase their understanding of transformative gender research. This lead to further training in data analysis and writing and bespoke support around coding and design coding frameworks

Participants reported feeling more confident after both the design and analysis courses and the quality of the data generated from subsequent fieldwork suggests their skills improved. We have now made this an open short course at UEA and this year plan to give it to another international institution
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Co-lead a workshop on academic publication as part the EJDR JUMP mentoring scheme 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Co-lead a workshop on academic publication for early career researchers from the global South as part the EJDR JUMP mentoring scheme
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.eadi.org/jump/
 
Description Co-organised one week's training for impact evaluators in Uganda, funded by GIZ 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact My course focused on the use qualitative and mixed methods and was enthusiastically received.

Participants have stayed in contact and I have reused some of the material in UEA short courses
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Commented on M-Nutrition study inception report 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact I am a member of the M-Nutrition advisory group and am responsible for quality assuring outputs before submission to DFID - currently there are no impacts as the project is at an early stage
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
URL https://www.ids.ac.uk/project/external-evaluation-of-mobile-phone-technology-based-nutrition-and-agr...
 
Description Commented on integration between qual and quant at the end of the first phase of the OPM-ITAD evaluation of the Nigerian CDG 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Ongoing quality assurance of the Nigerian CDG evaluation, with a particular focus on integrated use of mixed methods. The project is only in its first round so impact is not clear, although I can see that my recommendations have changed some aspects of the design.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
URL http://www.opml.co.uk/projects/evaluation-child-development-grant-programme
 
Description IDS Mixed methods edited volume launch 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Organised a launch at IDS for the Mixed methods edited volume which prompted many requests for further information and engagement. It was attended by 60 people, academics, students and practitioners
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description International expert panel reviewing report on QCA in evaluation commissioned by a Swedish funder 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The review of the report took place March 2016 so I have not been able to see what impact the published report have had, however, the funders anticipate a large international readership given the growing interest in QCA within evaluation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
 
Description Invited discussant for the World Social Science report panel organised at the EADI conference by John Gaventa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited discussant for the World Social Science report panel organised at the EADI conference by John Gaventa. This prompted a lively debate around the state of social science research which I drew on in drafting my book chapter on development methodologies for the EADI volume.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Invited expert at PROWEL PhD workshop, Switzerland 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited expert at PROWEL PhD programme annual workshop. Presented on my own work and commented on PhD students' papers from across Switzerland. Organisers confirmed that students had found it helpful and felt they had received 'good feedback'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Invited speaker at Child Wellbeing event in Berlin 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited speaker at child wellbeing conference, presented to 70 people, academics and NGO workers, and was subsequently contacted by World Vision to advise on the development of their child wellbeing tool
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.socmag.net/?p=1489
 
Description Keynote speaker at Child Wellbeing event, Madrid 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On the academic panel organising the EDUCO event which was attended by more than 300 practitioners. Spoke at the event, which was recorded, and subsequently recorded a segment for a promotional video. The event is designed to feed into EDUCO's attempt to centralise wellbeing in their policy and programming.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://congresoeduco.org/
 
Description Longitudinal, mixed methods and action research 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation workshop facilitator
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Addresses the challenges of integrating different datasets/ data collected using different methods and engagement with communities/ individuals over time.

Attracted more practitioners than the other seminars in the 'As well as the subject' series
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Participant in European Meeting on the design of a cross-national longitudinal survey of children and young people 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact I spent three days as part of a panel discussing proposals for a longitudinal survey and preparing detailed reports to facilitate decision making

The proposal we recommended was funded and the research has begun
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Participated in two grant assessment panels for the NORAD-funded AIDEFFECT scheme in 2013 and 2014 and a further evaluation of the POVPEACE programme in 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Participated in two panel assessments of two rounds of grants submitted to the scheme and an evaluation of the effects of a different funding scheme

Feedback potentially contributed to an improvement in the quality of proposals submitted to the second round
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014,2015
 
Description Penn State/ National Science Foundation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited participant in NSF expert workshop on 'Qualitative research ethics in an era of big data'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presented at DEEM workshop on wellbeing, Reading 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Since the workshop I have maintained links with two of the participants - Antonia Fernandez and Neha Hui - both of whom will be speaking at UEA seminars in the next few months. I have also maintained contact with the organiser Uma Khambhambati through our work at EJDR so will be able to develop this mutual interest further.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.wellbeingpathways.org/news-a-events/205-wellbeing-workshop-2015
 
Description Presented on wellbeing at international meeting of the ASSAR research group 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presented on conceptual and methodological aspects of wellbeing to audience of researchers and practitioners - this encouraged ASSAR to make wellbeing a central part of their conceptual framework and reassured participants that this would not be as difficult to do as they had feared.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Presenting an invited paper to 30 academics and students at a workshop on social immobilities in Africa in Brussels 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presenting an invited paper to 30 academics and students at a workshop on social immobilities in Africa in Brussels. Follow-up from two of the participating academics and a request to contribute to an edited volume.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Press release for social science festival 2014 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Turn-out for the event was better than expected, which we partly attributed to the press release. I was also emailed in advance of the event for further information

None
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Provided comments on a guidelines for increasing the quality of qualitative evaluation and related to that one day's training for DFID evaluation officers on the use of qualitative and mixed methods in evaluation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Provided comments on a guidelines for increasing the quality of qualitative evaluation and related to that one day's training for DFID evaluation officers on the use of qualitative and mixed methods in evaluation

Training may lead to a role in the development of a CPD curriculum for DFID advisors in-country, in addition to increasing the quality of the qualitative research proposals funded
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Ran activity in the 2014 festival of social science entitled 'asking the big questions in international development' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Ran an exhibition in the Forum in Norwich as part of the 2014 festival of social science entitled 'asking the big questions in international development'

Participants verbally expressed enthusiasm and many exchanged emails to keep in touch in the future
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Recorded you tube video for the AURA programme 'Future researchers' component 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Recorded video on capacity building around mixed methods as part of the www.ids.ac.uk/project/african-universities-research-approaches-aura-capacity-development-programme. The video was live-streamed to participants in their annual conference and made available internationally via their youtube channel. I have been asked to contribute further to the project as their work programme develops.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlkZ7LnZxxI
 
Description Review of the ESRC's framework for research activities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I am involved in the review of the current ESRC ethical guidelines which guide all research conducted through UK universities

Activity ongoing
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Speaker on writing and publication at event for development studies undergraduates 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Keynote invited speaker at UEL undergaduate organised conference addressing writing and publication within development studies. Had positive feedback and subsequent requests for information on DSA, EADI and publication within development studies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.uel-undergraduate-conference.co.uk/
 
Description The power of evidence on multidimensional poverty and poverty dynamics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation workshop facilitator
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Organised and chaired a panel on 'The power of evidence on multidimensional poverty and poverty dynamics' at the Development Studies Association conferences, which reaches practitioners, consultants and policy makers as well as academics. This was done on behalf of the DSA/EADI Multidimensional poverty study group

None
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description UEA/IDS international workshop on mixed methods research in poverty and vulnerability : sharing ideas and learning lessons 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation workshop facilitator
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I co-organised the workshop with Keetie Roelen and presented my own work alongside 20 or so participants.



We are currently preparing an edited volume to be published by Palgrave Macmillan based on papers presented at the event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description You tube video filmed discussing children and young people in the global South for a reading pack for DFID advisors 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I recorded a video on children and young people in international development to accompany a DFID funded reading pack and will also be presenting at a webinar next month.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI_kZMjYlhE