As part of the gLOCAL Evaluation week 2023, GBL organized a masterclass and a seminar on 30th and 31st May, 2023. gLOCAL Evaluation week 2023focus upon the future of M&E, looking at three important thematic areas that are crucial for the practice and institutionalisation of M&E: Culture, Context, and Collaboration.

Partnering for Impact: Bringing together Research, M&E, and Businesses

| Date : May 30th 2023

This masterclass focused on building and maintaining efficient, long-term M&E partnerships with businesses.
GBL experts shared their learnings from forging such partnerships with non-traditional M&E players. Our Research Manager, Simranjeet Dhir, and Senior Partnerships Associate, Rochak Jain, highlighted the importance of creating robust M&E partnerships with businesses, and discussing the benefits, challenges, and solutions of implementing impact evaluations. Our Associate Director – Field, Varun Jagannath further placed emphasis on field researchers’ role in fostering these collaborations, using successful case studies as examples.

Speakers: 

• Varun Jagannath, Associate Director – Field, Good Business Lab
• Simranjeet Dhir, Research Manager, Good Business Lab
• Rochak Jain, Senior Partnerships Associate, Good Business Lab

Moderator: 

• Pallavi Yadav, Senior Marketing Associate, Good Business Lab

Key takeaways from the masterclass

1. The masterclass concluded that while forming such partnerships can be difficult, they can be incredibly beneficial, providing access to data and opportunities for scaling up products.
2. The key to success lies in clear communication, regular updates, stakeholder involvement, ground-level buy-in, and a continuous feedback loop. Therefore, it’s vital for M&Es and researchers, particularly in the employed labor sector, to consider pursuing these partnerships.

Case For Context: Building Culturally Sensitive Economic Evidence In Labor-Intensive Settings

| Date: May 31st 2023

This seminar brought together researchers working on M&E projects in 2 developing countries- India & Colombia, and 2 different labor-intensive industries to discuss how projects with similar aims can & should differ in their methodology to account for cultural context. Our Associate Director – Research, Smit Gade, emphasized the need to adapt research to cultural contexts, discussing the importance of understanding local customs. Andrea Garcia, Research manager, Good Business Lab, Latin America, added on to highlight the significance of using mixed methods, participatory learning, and localization.

Speakers: 

• Smit Gade, Director – Research and Data, Good Business Lab
• Andrea Garcia, Research Manager, Good Business Lab, Latin America

Moderator: 

• Rashi Seth, Senior Partnerships Associate, Good Business Lab

Key takeaways from the masterclass

1. The session focused particularly on addressing the gender gap in different geographical and cultural settings and showcased the Good Business Lab’s successful implementation of context-specific soft skills programs across Asia and Latin America.
2. It concluded that research should be tailored to specific industries, locations, and cultural norms, however, with new projects building on previous ones rather than starting from scratch.

If questions still linger, drop us an email at info@goodbusinesslab.org.

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