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Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

By Sarah Dickins Girlguiding UK Girlguiding is the UK’s largest youth organisation dedicated completely to girls, with around 370,000 members. We help girls know they can do anything, whether they’re 4 or 18 or in between. We show them a world of possibilities, big and small. We help them think big and be bold in a space where they can be themselves, get creative, explore, and have fun. We’re a powerful collective voice – with girls, led by girls – changing the world for the better. At Girlguiding, our commitment to amplifying girls’ voices shapes how we work. Our advocacy work is led by the advocates, a panel of young members aged 14 to 25 who act as spokespeople for Girlguiding, talking to UK Members of Parliament and other changemakers on issues that affect girls. Our youth steering group, Amplify, feeds back on internal work and processes, making sure girls’ experiences and preferences are heard at the highest levels of our organisation. But what are the implications for monitoring and evaluation? How can we understand meaningful participation in the context of girl voice? And how can girl voice enhance and innovate evaluation processes? What’s meaningful about participation? ‘Meaningful participation’ has become a widespread term since the popularisation of participatory evaluation approaches in the 1990s. Perhaps more than other types of evaluation, this term encompasses a range of understandings, experiences and techniques. Nuanced, context-sensitive and flexible by definition, there are almost as many definitions of meaningful participation as there are participatory evaluations themselves. UNICEF’s Methodological Brief on participatory approaches notes, for example, just a few of the areas in which meaningful participation can differ from context to context, including “a wide range of different types of participation, which differ in terms of what is understood by ‘participation’, whose participation is wanted, and what it is that those people are involved in and how”. For the purposes of this blog and Girlguiding’s work, however, it’s helpful to think of ‘meaningful participation’ as having two core parts: a commitment to stakeholder participation at one or more phases of an initiative or project, and a need for this participation to support the development, implementation and/or learning of an initiative or project in a genuine and purposeful way. Meaningful participation and girl voice Meaningful participation also has a particular history in the context of youth-centred projects. In his 1992 article, ‘Children’s Participation: From tokenism to citizenship’, Roger Hart applied Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation to children. The principle of this ladder is simple: if people have more opportunities to participate in processes that affect them, they are more empowered to make decisions and shape a more equal future for their communities. Hart takes this ladder metaphor further, suggesting there are increasing degrees of ‘true’ participation. As our programming and evaluation become more participatory, we see an increasing shift from adult to child leadership, direction and ownership in decision-making. Meaningful girl-centred evaluation involves investing in girls’ leadership in strategic planning and evaluation processes. So what does this mean in the context of girl and young women-centred initiatives? Whilst the principles of Hart’s framework are still relevant, there are additional considerations. Intersectional feminism argues that we interact with global power structures differently based on our unique combined experiences of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, class, religion and other factors. Using this lens, we can see that girls and young women face the overlapping challenges of being female and being young – as well as their many and varied experiences of discrimination based on ethnicity, disability and socioeconomic deprivation. And Girlguiding’s research suggests that girls’ experiences are getting worse. Our 2023 Girls’ Attitudes Survey reveals girls’ happiness levels have significantly declined over the past 15 years, with only 17% of girls aged 7-21 stating they feel very happy, compared to 40% in 2009. At Girlguiding, we try to make our girl-centred evaluations sensitive to this context. This includes evaluation practices, such as cross-disaggregating data by gender, age, ethnicity and disability; and promoting ‘brave spaces’ in focus groups, workshops and interviews, where girls are encouraged to challenge, innovate and co-create evaluation processes in a psychologically safe and confidential environment. Importantly, too, meaningful girl-centred evaluation involves investing in girls’ leadership in strategic planning and evaluation processes. One example of this work is in the development of our 2020+ Strategy, which consulted with over 50,000 girls, young women, volunteers, parents and carers, and staff. As part of this process, Girlguiding developed and delivered participatory workshops with over 1250 girls aged 5-18. Outcome mapping activities were ‘gamified’ in age-appropriate ways, for example, girls in the Rainbows section (ages 5-7) and the Brownies section (ages 7-10) were asked to help a fictitious ‘Cecil the snake’ find her colourful stripes, by identifying the things that make Girlguiding unique and special. Girls aged 10-18 in the older sections, Guides and Rangers, explored outcomes and areas of improvement by workshopping what the values and principles of a fantasy future Girlguiding might be. In both cases, data and lessons learnt from these participatory workshops has been used to shape Girlguiding’s subsequent evaluation agenda and frameworks, including our organisational theory of change and flagship 2023 impact report – which highlighted that Girlguiding girls are up to 23% more confident than UK girls not in guiding. The importance of empowering girls to lead and shape programmes was also highlighted in this consultation, contributing to the creation of Amplify, our youth steering group, who not only provide youth leadership in our organisational governance, but also deliver their own monitoring and evaluation of youth-led governance through self- and group reflection. Integrating girl voice into evaluation: task, timing and tone So, finally, how can girl voice be successfully integrated into participatory evaluation? At the end of 2022, we asked Amplify what made girls’ participation in focus groups more participatory and engaging. They gave a range of ideas, which can be summarised as the ‘task’, ‘timing’ and ‘tone’ of evaluation. First, meaningful girls’ participation in evaluation needs a suitable task. The key to meaningful participation is that it’s purposeful: you may need to hear from girls to make the evaluation more accurate, to empower girls further through evaluation, to build long-term relationships or to fulfil our strategic commitments. Whatever your reasoning, you need a clear idea of why you want to involve girls in your evaluations and, therefore, who it’s best to involve. This means being intentionally inclusive in inviting and enabling girls from a range of backgrounds, especially those who are most marginalised or those who are most affected by any issues your evaluation addresses. Second, meaningful girls’ participation needs to be well-timed. This principle is about working with girls to find appropriate moments for them to participate in evaluations. This means respecting that girls and young women often have many competing priorities for their time and energy, as well as thinking fully about the various and iterative stages of evaluation that girls can be meaningfully involved in, from design, to data collection, analysis and socialisation of findings. Thirdly, meaningful girls’ participation needs to be given an empowering tone. Adult facilitators should use respectful, non-patronising language throughout, both minimising jargon and explaining relevant technical concepts in age and context-appropriate ways. When reporting findings, relay the girls’ thoughts respectfully and, where appropriate, using the original terms and phrasing, as these may have been carefully chosen by the girl to convey their perspective. And finally, it’s always important to give credit where credit is due, acknowledging and celebrating where girls have contributed to your evaluation design, process and findings. In this way, meaningful girl participation benefits both evaluation and the girls themselves. It not only provides more accurate, creative and complete findings, it also builds long-term, respectful relationships and enables Girlguiding’s mission: to help girls know they can do anything. Sarah Dickins is a monitoring, evaluation and learning specialist who has spent the last decade working with girls and other young people around the world. She’s passionate about how participatory evaluation can empower communities. At Girlguiding UK, she delivers the Insight team’s longitudinal quasi-experimental impact study. Connect with Sarah via LinkedIn.

influential evaluation. better decisions. better results. better policies. get involved 8-12 July 2024 Join the second Youth in Evaluation week to advocate, network, collaborate, and shape solutions that advance the implementation of the Youth in Evaluation standards learn more Standards for enhancing meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation Tailored standards for academia, governments, international organizations, the private sector, VOPEs and youth organizations learn more latest Sign the manifesto Self-report on the Youth in Evaluation Standards #Eval4Action in 2023 Year-end recap #Eval4Action Newsletter #42 Subscribe Girl voice and meaningful participation by Sarah Dickins #Eval4Action is a SDG Good Practice events tracker Datawrapper

Get ready! The second Youth in Evaluation week 2024 will be held from 8 to 12 July 2024, building on the success of the first Youth in Evaluation week . Aligned with the UN Summit of the Future 2024 , this gathering of the global evaluation community will amplify dialogue on intergenerational solidarity for transformative evaluation and build momentum for enhancing meaningful youth engagement in evaluation. The overarching theme for Youth in Evaluation week 2024 is ‘Upholding Youth in Evaluation standards ’. The events at the week will explore six dimensions of the standards - leadership and accountability , practice , advocacy and capacity building , knowledge management and communication , human resources and financial resources - for advancing intergenerational partnerships in evaluation. ​ Concept note Programme outline 50 events 6 regions 10 languages Youth in Evaluation champion awards Career development sessions for YEEs Social media dialogues More than half the events led by youth More ways to engage Sign the Youth in Evaluation manifesto & spread the word Adopt the Youth in Evaluation standards & self-report Join Youth in Evaluation week 2024 as a partner Reach out to contact@eval4action.org with questions

programme day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 career development full programme global events communications pack inclusive and intergenerational gathering of the global evaluation community Strengthening the voice, learning and prosperity of young evaluators, aligned with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda Quick snapshot of events yiew global registration global events global inauguration of youth in evaluation week details launch of standards: enhancing youth engagement in evaluation standards for governments and academia details standards for international organizations and the private sector details standards for youth organizations and VOPEs details twitter spaces EvalYouth experiences details learning and job opportunities in evaluation details what have we learned at the youth in evaluation week? (concluding event) details YieW learnmore learn more Youth in Evaluation week concept note Youth in Evaluation initiative: sign the manifesto Standards for enhancing meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation Communications pack Reach out to contact@eval4action.org with any questions