Services
How Food Security Evidence Brokerage works
Food Security Evidence Brokerage provides customized evidence solutions to support organizations in their food security and nutrition programming. I believe in using the most rigorous possible methods to answer decision-relevant questions. My approach to evidence solutions is highly collaborative. I start by understanding your organization, the constraints you function under, and your goal in commissioning research. Together, we develop and refine research questions, a theory of change, and an analytical approach. I will co-create with you every step of the way to ensure my work responds to your needs. I deliver our work in plain language and focus on actionable insights.
Who Food Security Evidence Brokerage works for
Food Security Evidence Brokerage works for anyone who needs support answering decision-relevant questions, with a focus on low- and middle-income contexts. Most often, these are policy-makers, funders, implementers, and other researchers. I worked with USAID, GIZ, FCDO, and the Gates Foundation, helping them first formulate their research question and then answering it. My work has been leveraged by other researchers and research organizations to support the implementation of their own projects. If you have a specific decision-relevant question that can be answered through research, I am here to help.
What Food Security Evidence Brokerage offers
Working across sectors, including food systems transformation, maternal and child health, HIV, WaSH, and displacement, Food Security Evidence Brokerage conducts portfolio reviews, strategy analysis, impact evaluations, evidence synthesis and translation, theories of change and logical frameworks, and data analysis.
Portfolio reviews
What it is: A systematic analysis of your existing programs to determine what is working well and where there is room for improvement. Each review is unique, tailored to your monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) approach and the data you have on hand. Ideally, portfolio reviews use both quantitative and qualitative information to develop a complete picture of the commonalities in outcomes, challenges, and successes across projects. The goal of a portfolio review is to identify growth opportunities, not assign blame. Reviews are always handled in a positive and forward-looking manner. As the team experienced running the projects, you are at the heart of the review. My role is to draw out and present clear lessons learned from your organization's experience.
How to use it: A portfolio review can help you spot patterns in successes and challenges across projects. Maybe there is something that consistently works well, but each project discovers this independently. Why not intentionally integrate it into the design of the next project? A portfolio review can help you present your successes as a cohesive story to external stakeholders. On the other hand, the review might uncover common challenges across projects that can be addressed in intervention design going forward.
Strategy analysis
What it is: Strategy analysis takes a close look at your programs in relation to your core mission to see if they align. It starts by developing a deep understanding of your organization's goals and objectives. Then, I map the alignment between your programs and those goals and objectives. If it is valuable, we can even compare your organization's mission, goals, and programs with those of your peers or funders to find similarities and differences.
How to use it: Strategy analysis ensures that your organization stays true to its core mission. It identifies areas where you might be underinvesting and spots opportunities for growth. Going through this process often prompts deep reflection on what your organization should prioritize. When compared with other organizations, you might discover areas where you have a competitive advantage, potential collaborators, or a chance to set yourself apart.
Impact evaluations
What it is: Impact evaluations establish the change in an outcome that can be causally attributed to an intervention. Often, they also establish how, why, and for whom change was achieved. Mixed-methods impact evaluations use both qualitative and quantitative information to understand causation. Evaluations can be designed with limited interruption to the program itself, to ensure programs are implemented in real-world contexts.
How to use it: Impact evaluations can help you determine if and how your program achieved its goals. Regardless of the overall finding of impact, an understanding of the causal mechanisms can support scaling and re-design decisions. Evaluation services can be used early in program design to ensure future evaluation is possible, or after project initiation to develop post hoc evaluation approaches.
Evidence synthesis
What it is: Evidence synthesis projects gather research on a specific topic and present it in a straightforward, coherent way, with the goal of drawing broad conclusions. What happened once might not happen the same way again, so we aim to understand what commonly occurs, why it does, and what the outliers are. I pull out key lessons and insights that can inform your intervention designs.
How to use it: If you have a research question but lack the time to dive into all the available evidence, I am here to help. Want to know what typically occurs when your intervention is implemented? What pitfalls to avoid? If there's information out there, I can find it for you.
Evidence translation
What it is: Generally, evidence translation services take academic research and make it accessible in plain language. But, they can also take policy outputs and transform them into “researchable” questions. Often, researchers and policymakers struggle to communicate because they use different jargon. Researchers talk about beta coefficients, while policymakers discuss outcomes like "wellbeing." I can help researchers transform their technical articles into user-friendly briefs, blogs, and presentations that policymakers will appreciate. I can also assist policymakers in making sense of technical research outputs. or expressing their research needs in a language that researchers can address.
How to use it: If you have been experiencing communication barriers with colleagues across the table, evidence translation can bridge the gap. Use evidence translation services when you want to eliminate jargon and truly grasp the research's meaning. Alternativley, go the other way – formalize your research interests in a way that the research community can easily understand.
Theory of change and logical frameworks
What it is: Theories of change are conceptual roadmaps that outline how an intervention is expected to achieve change. Similar outputs include project impact pathways and results chains. Logical frameworks are the detailed blueprints that specify the indicators, means of verification, and assumptions for monitoring and evaluating an intervention. Similar outputs include results frameworks and project matrixes. While all are intuitive, developing them in a structured way, leaving no room for ambiguity, is a highly technical undertaking.
How to use it: Theories of change and logical frameworks are standard in program design within the development community. However, decision-makers often lack the time or expertise to translate their understanding of a program into the technical output of a theory of change or logical framework. I am here to help. By organizing your program design documents around a theory of change or logical framework, I can help you meet donor requirements and spot potential gaps in your work. This sets you up for success because your assumptions and measurement approach are well-documented from the start.
Data analysis
What it is: This is extra support for your data analysis, plain and simple. I am well-versed in both qualitative and quantitative analysis and can weave them together to tell a compelling story about changes and their reasons. I am skilled with R and have experience with Nvivo. I am ready to assist with longitudinal analysis, fixed effects estimation, latent class modeling, difference-in-difference analysis, propensity score matching, and more. I can also help you process interviews or other qualitative data to uncover common themes in participants' experiences and perspectives.
How to use it: Often, researchers and decision-makers have a wealth of information but lack the time or expertise to analyze it comprehensively. If data crunching is the only thing standing between you and the answers you need, I have you covered. I will present the findings in the format you prefer, whether it's a full-length report, a peer-reviewed article, or a just the take home message.
How Food Security Evidence Brokerage helps you
Let's say you are a decision-maker considering women's empowerment within the food system. A rapid evidence assessment could help you determine that the available evidence indicates women's empowerment interventions can improve food security and affordability or availability. A brief could communicate this in a plain language, while a peer reviewed article could reassure you that the methods used were rigorous.
If you already implemented a program, mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) research could be used to understand the link between outputs, like participation, and outcomes, like agricultural practices. Findings might show participation is affected by interpersonal relationships and associated with improved outcomes. This could motivate you to take efforts to increase participation in program re-design.
Maybe you just want to understand the research a little better on your own. A simple research guide could empower you to access the information you need, without having to go through an evidence broker.
Or, you might just need some advanced data crunching to understand how outcomes are changing over time. You might find that what you thought was a homogenous population is actually composed of several sub-groups, which each experience different patterns of growth and outcomes.
