Open AccessWeighing Decisions in Monitoring and Evaluation of Clean Cookstoves
Author(s) -
VENTRELLA JENNIFER,
PEIFFER ERIN,
ZHANG SHAOZENG,
MacCARTY NORDICA
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2019.01301
Subject(s) - stove , agency (philosophy) , accountability , stakeholder , environmental economics , business , government (linguistics) , stakeholder engagement , consumption (sociology) , electricity , computer security , environmental resource management , computer science , public relations , engineering , political science , environmental science , economics , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , electrical engineering , law , mechanical engineering
This case study examines agency within monitoring and evaluation (M&E) schemes for international development projects. Specifically, it evaluates a sensor to measure fuel consumption of clean cookstoves as a method of maintaining accountability and soliciting data on stove performance. Despite trends of increasingly automated M&E, the decisions of choosing, analyzing, and translating outcomes and indicators are influenced by stakeholder input. Through various rapid ethnographic methods including surveys and interviews with government agencies, non‐profits, and clean stove users, in addition to participant observation and focal follow of stove users in Central America and Uganda, the interactions and inputs of various agents throughout the project lifetime are assessed. Further, it is discussed that while not all actors were equitably engaged throughout the entirety of the project, sometimes as a result of misaligned goals, M&E can be leveraged as a communication mechanism between stakeholders to enable increased engagement and goal alignment.