Join Dr. David Wand as he takes you on a provocative, investigative journey challenging Canadian & American international development organizations as well as international organizations to improve their performance measurement frameworks (PMFs) or Activity Monitoring and Evaluation (MEL) Plans. In Season 1, part 1 of the episode, Dr. Wand will introduce you to an international development organization and one of its projects where flaws in their PMF will be identified. In part 2 of the episode, the international development organization and evaluation experts will be invited to discuss Dr. Wand's critique and offer solutions to improving the evaluation of the project.
For Season 2, Dr. Wand expands the scope of his podcast to include USA government funded international development projects by acquiring Activity Monitoring Evaluation Learning Plans (MEL Plans) or their equivalent as well as continue acquiring Canada government funded international development projects that require PMFs or their equivalent. For Season 2 the focus of the podcast has also been improved whereby several projects from the same international development organization are covered in the same episode exposing how the international development organization fails to properly measure and evaluate whether its expected outcomes have been achieved. This is despite these organizations falsely claiming on their websites that they have achieved these outcomes at the expense of the taxpayer.
GCERF in Mali fails to support its claims of its projects increasing government engagement and integration among youth and ex-prisoners
In this episode, Dr. Wand explains how a poorly designed evaluation framework with no control or comparision groups fails to support GCERF claims that the project services they have funded were responsible for the measured percentage increases from baseline to endline for projects in Mali. Dr. Wand reviews the evaluation report produced by the Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund (GCERF) available at https://www.gcerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Mali-Results-Paper-Round-3-Funding-2020-22.pdf (https://www.gcerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Mali-Results-Paper-Round-3-Funding-2020-22.pdf)
Dr. Wand's review covers the following findings with detailed examples:
GCERF claims a percentage increase of 12% from baseline to endline of 92% at endline of women and youth reporting trust in other members in their community after the introduction of a GCERF-funded trust program in that community. This claim is false due the absence of a control or comparison group where women and youth did not receive the trust program.
GCERF claims a percentage increase of 30% from baseline to endline at 96% at endline for youth participants reporting having engaged with local leaders after the introduction of a GCERF-funded intervention involving 'mobilised dialogues'. This claim is false due the absence of a control or comparison group where youth did not receive the GCERF-funded program involving 'mobilised dialogues'.
GCERF reported '67% of ex-detainees reported feeling accepted by members of their community' with this percentage being due to a GCERF-funded program that 'assisted 1,074 former prisoners in Mali to reintegrate into their communities'. However, GCERF fails to mention the presence of any control groups where former prisoners did not receive this GCERF-funded program but were also measured on the percentage 'feeling accepted by members of their community'. Hence, the GCERF claim is false.
Recommendations include introducing control or comparison groups and using psychometric approachs to measuring their expected outcomes (e.g. increases in trust, social cohesion, tolerance, vocational skills, critical thinking skills specific to preventing recruitment by extremist groups) rather than resorting to flawed outcome harvesting.
To receive discounts for the purchase of sunglasses or polo shirts or travel bags/backpacks/wallets designed for the Global South use the following link:
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24 Jun 2026
GCERF post evaluation fails to show effectiveness in countering violent extremism in Nigeria
In this episode, Dr. Wand explains how a poorly designed evaluation framework with invalid outcome indicators leads to a post-project evaluation that fails to demonstrate effectiveness in countering violent extremism in Nigeria. Dr. Wand reviews the evaluation report produced by the Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund (GCERF) available at https://www.gcerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Nigeria-Results-Paper-Round-2-Funding-2019-21.pdf (https://www.gcerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Nigeria-Results-Paper-Round-2-Funding-2019-21.pdf).
Dr. Wand's review covers the following findings with detailed examples:
Expected outcomes cannot be claimed to be achieved as GCERF claims as the outcome indicators depend on biased self-reporting rather than objective measures. Examples include GCERF claims of Community Action Response Teams being 'fully functionable' but with no objective measures of functionality.
GCERF claims of high levels of confidence by beneficiaries are questionable as methods of measuring these confidence levels are not provided.
Outcome indicators measuring skill acquisition for concrete skills such as the ability to mediate or manage conflicts or the ability to identify and report early warning signs of conflict are absent yet GCERF assumes without data that this skill acquisition occurred and that conflict mediation or management was successful.
GCERF makes 'impact' claims beyond the project despite no evidence such as reductions in violence and alcohol in specific communities.
Recommendations to include data sources and methods of data collection and analysis are provided to enable GCERF to support their claims that currently cannot be supported as well as ensuring that outcome indicators actually measure the expected outcomes.
To receive discounts for the purchase of sunglasses or polo shirts or travel bags/backpacks/wallets designed for the Global South use the following link:
https://mydeals.page/1hjl (https://mydeals.page/1hjl)
Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/ZAQD8888DEDXL (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/ZAQD8888DEDXL)
Or at buymeacoffee.com/davidwand (http://buymeacoffee.com/davidwand)to help the podcast.
19 Jun 2026
Humber Polytechnic International Development Institute fails to properly evaluate its $2 Million Kenya & Ethiopia STEM Education for Empowerment project
In this episode, Dr. Wand reviews the Humber Polytechnic International Development Institute (https://humber.ca/global/international-development-institute-idi (https://humber.ca/global/international-development-institute-idi)) $2 Million Kenya & Ethiopia STEM Education for Empowerment project's Performance Measurement Framework (PMF). He concludes that Humber Polytechnic International Development Institute cannot make the claim that it has achieved 8 of the 9 expected Outcomes for the project since 18 out of the 19 outcome indicators are not valid measures of the Outcomes, or for the 1 valid outcome indicator fail to show the necessary statistical analysis that would support the project's claim that the outcome was achieved statistically significantly rather than due to chance.
Details about the project can be found here: https://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/project-projet/details/p007925001 (https://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/project-projet/details/p007925001)
The PMF and Dr. Wand's critique are available by emailing evaluatecanadaaid@gmail.com.
The PMF and the critique will be shared with Humber Polytechnic along with an invitation for them to respond to the critique by attending a future podcast. It will also be shared with the Secretary of State for International Development as well as the shadow critics for all the opposition parties.
To receive discounts for the purchase of sunglasses or polo shirts or travel bags/backpacks/wallets designed for the Global South use the following link:
https://mydeals.page/1hjl (https://mydeals.page/1hjl)
Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/ZAQD8888DEDXL (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/ZAQD8888DEDXL)
Or at buymeacoffee.com/davidwand (http://buymeacoffee.com/davidwand)to help the podcast.
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