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Measurement and Evaluation

Nitin Datta

in
Nitin
Datta
Technical Specialist
Bio: 

Nitin Datta is technical specialist at the International Center for Research on Women's (ICRW) Asia Regional Office where he is responsible for the quantitative research activities for the IMPACCT project and also provides technical support for qualitative research. Datta works closely with research partner agencies for implementing the IMPACCT project.

Datta has worked as technical support on various research and evaluation projects in areas of maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. Datta specializes in monitoring and evaluation of health programs, including developing MIS system, research designs, data management and analysis. He has experience using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and software programs like SPSS, STATA, ATLAS TI. Prior to joining ICRW, he has worked for FHI360 (CDC-funded project on strategic information with NACO), Population Council (Gates Foundation-RMNCHN project), Futures Group (USAID-funded ITAP project on family planning, maternal and child health) and IIM Bangalore-UCSF collaborative research study (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded SAMATA Health study on HIV and gender based violence). As MPhil candidate, Datta collected and analyzed data on prostate cancer patients from hospital and Mumbai cancer registry.

Expertise: 

Research and Anlysis, Measurement and Evaluation, Maternal health, HIV and AIDS

Languages Spoken: 

Hindi (native), English (fluent)

Education: 

Datta has MPhil in Population Sciences from the International Institute for Population Sciences. He also holds Master’s degree in Economics, and Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry from Lucknow University.

ICRW Unveils Evaluation of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women

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Evaluation offers first glimpse of program's impact on women entrepreneurs
Thu, 03/01/2012
By ICRW Communications Staff

ICRW conducted an evaluation of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative in India to identify early results of the program on women entrepreneurs’ business skills, practices and growth. The findings were unveiled today at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The global five-year program, "10,000 Women," aims to harness the power of women entrepreneurs to foster economic growth by teaching them how to become stronger businesswomen. Launched by Goldman Sachs in March 2008, the program’s goal is to provide 10,000 women who run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high-quality business and management skills training.    

Despite the enormous potential of these women to help grow economies in developing countries, research shows that they often have little access to business or management training and entrepreneurial networks. In an attempt to fill this critical gap, 10,000 Women invests in women in the SME sector who belong to what is often referred to as the “missing middle.” 

Has it made a difference in women’s lives? Has it borne broader benefits for the communities where they live and work? 

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) set out to find out. Our researchers just completed the first independent evaluation of the 10,000 Women program, which focused on results in India. It shows that the program — in combination with a number of other factors — is making a difference there. 

ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou will release the report, "Catalyzing Growth in the Women-run Small and Medium Enterprise Sector (SMEs)," and discuss its findings during a March 1 Council on Foreign Relations event in New York. Goldman Sachs and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer will be among the attendees.

ICRW found strong evidence that the 10,000 Women program in India contributed to improving women’s business practices and skills. For many of the program's participants, these newfound skills seem to have played a critical role in strengthening their businesses’ performance. For example, half of the program’s "graduates" who reported data, said that they had doubled their revenues in an 18-month period. They also reported feeling more confident as entrepreneurs, which they say has resulted in other positive outcomes within their families and communities. 

ICRW's evaluation does not reflect the overall performance of the 10,000 Women program, which is up and running in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, China, Egypt and Rwanda. However, it does provide an initial glimpse at the program's potential to make a difference in 10,000 businesswomen’s lives – and the lives around them.

Catalyzing Growth in the Women-Run Small and Medium Enterprises Sector (SMEs)

Catalyzing Growth in the Women-Run Small and Medium Enterprises Sector (SMEs)
Evaluating the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative

International Center for Research on Women
2012

ICRW conducted an evaluation of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative in India to identify early results of the program on women entrepreneurs’ business skills, practices and growth. 10,000 Women, launched in 2008, aims to provide 10,000 women who run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high-quality business and management skills training. Research shows that these women are often underserved, in terms of access to business or management training and entrepreneurial networks, despite the enormous potential they have to help grow economies in developing countries.

This brief presents a summary of ICRW’s initial evaluation of the India program, which shows how the 10,000 Women program — in combination with a number of other factors — is making a difference in graduates’ businesses and lives.

(1.09 MB)

We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

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Measurement, Learning & Evaluation of the Urban Health Initiative

Measurement, Learning & Evaluation of the Urban Health Initiative
Uttar Pradesh, India, Baseline Survey 2010

Priya Nanda, Pranita Achyut, Anurag Mishra, Lisa Calhoun
2011

The Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) project is the evaluation component of the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, a multi-country program in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal that aims to improve the health of the urban poor. A key objective of the project is to undertake a rigorous impact evaluation of the country programs, identifying the most effective and cost-efficient programmatic approaches to improving contraceptive use among the urban poor.

This report presents baseline survey results from samples in six cities in Uttar Pradesh, India. These findings provide an in-depth, quantitative examination of the factors that influence contraceptive use and fertility. Data from this survey can help guide program planners and policymakers as they determine which policies and programs are likely to lead to the desired reproductive health outcomes.

The MLE project is implemented by the University of North Carolina’s Carolina Population Center, in collaboration with African Population and Health Research Center and the International Center for Research on Women. For more information about the MLE project, visit www.urbanreproductivehealth.org.

(1.49 MB)

We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

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Economic Advancement: From Theory to Practice

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New report provides practical guidance on women’s economic empowerment
Wed, 10/19/2011

ICRW launches a new report to help researchers, practitioners and donors design effective, measurable programs to economically strengthen women. ICRW’s Anju Malhotra highlights some of the findings.

A growing number of organizations are committed to strengthening women economically, but few understand exactly how to make it happen. Nor are they clear how to evaluate whether their efforts are successful. To help address this need, ICRW today launches its latest report, “Understanding and Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment.” One of its authors, ICRW’s Anju Malhotra, highlights below a few findings from the research that guided the document. Malhotra responded to questions via email.

ICRW: Our latest report lays out a framework to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of programs that aim to advance women economically. How did researchers determine there was a need for this?

Anju Malhotra: In the past few years, and especially the last few months, ICRW has been approached by a number of organizations seeking clarity and guidance on this point. We responded to this demand by developing the framework featured in our report. An increasing number of organizations and individuals understand the importance of advancing women economically. But they are less clear on the exact steps to take in bringing it about. And they are seeking markers of success: How will they know empowerment has been achieved? Based on ICRW’s research and programmatic experience in this area, we felt that clarity on these points would be welcome by a large number of stakeholders committed to economically empowering women.

ICRW: What must governments, corporations, donors and nongovernmental organizations consider if they want to include women more in the global marketplace and help strengthen them economically?

AM: Recognize that women are both producers and consumers in an economy. Consider women in the full range of their productive activities and the contributions they make. Like all entrepreneurs and workers, women need resources and skills to thrive and help economies grow. They need access to banks, markets and companies. They need policies that will create an environment for them to progress economically. Unfortunately, the reality for most women is that their opportunities and access to money and power are often limited. So we need to ensure equal access.

Women also are important to economies as consumers. They buy staples like food, shelter and clothing. As their buying power rises, they are increasingly a market for education and health services as well as goods such as scooters, cars and cell phones. Companies with products and services to sell need to cater to women’s preferences and consumption needs. And governments and the private sector need to recognize that providing opportunities to the female workforce can strengthen the business bottom line and help economies grow.

ICRW: What are some common misconceptions practitioners and organizations have about building economic empowerment programs?

AM: The biggest misconception is that because women’s economic empowerment is a complex concept, we need to undertake complex and comprehensive programs to bring it about. But no one organization or program can effectively address all the dimensions of women’s economic empowerment in a single stroke. We don’t advise that they do. Rather, it is important for professionals to “choose their slice.” By that I mean choose the women, locations and contexts where the interventions they are best equipped to undertake have the greatest chance of being successful. For example, while many women can benefit from acquiring business skills, it may be best to invest in such skills for women who are in environments where policy and economic circumstances are favorable for women’s business growth. In environments where these factors are lacking, such an intervention is less likely to lead to desired results.

ICRW: How would you like to see this latest report from ICRW used in the field?

AM: Our hope is that the report will facilitate more effective allocation of resources and effort among initiatives that are aiming to economically empower women.  We also hope that it will make the task of devising and assessing such programs much easier for those committed to opening up opportunities for women to contribute more equitably in the global economy.

Related content: Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment

Understanding and Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment

Understanding and Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment
Definition, Framework and Indicators

Anne Marie Golla, Anju Malhotra, Priya Nanda and Rekha Mehra
2011

Economically empowering women is essential both to realize women’s rights and to achieve broader development goals such as economic growth, poverty reduction, health, education and welfare. But women’s economic empowerment is a multifaceted concept so how can practitioners, researchers and donors design effective, measurable interventions?

This brief report lays out fundamental concepts including a definition of women’s economic empowerment; a measurement framework that can guide the design, implementation and evaluation of programs to economically empower women; and a set of illustrative indicators that can serve as concrete examples for developing meaningful metrics for success.

(1.77 MB)

We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

Terms and Conditions »

Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. Program Recognized by Former President Clinton

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Recognition at Clinton Global Initiative as an Exemplary Approach to Women's Economic Empowerment
Wed, 09/21/2011

San Francisco, CA – September 21, 2011 – (GPS) –Today former President Bill Clinton recognized Gap Inc. for its commitment and model approach to addressing challenges in Economic Empowerment through the Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) program. The recognition took place during Wednesday’s closing plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative, held in New York City. Bob Fisher, son of Gap Inc. founders Doris and Don Fisher and a Gap Inc. Board Member, accepted the honor on behalf of the company.

P.A.C.E. is a comprehensive workplace education program that provides life skills and technical training for female garment workers, and is currently implemented in six countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The program asks both workers and management in garment factories to view the welfare, potential, and success of female line workers as keys to business success.
“We are deeply honored by this recognition. Investing in improving women’s lives is a natural fit for Gap Inc. and our company values,” said Bob Fisher. “The program is innovative, scalable and sustainable. Thousands of women across six countries have already participated.”

Launched in 2007, Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program creates opportunities for women to advance in their careers and personal lives. The garment industry is one of the world’s largest employers of low-skilled women workers. Despite their large numbers in the workforce, relatively few female garment workers advance to management positions, as many do not have access to the education and training that will propel their professional advancement. Research shows that P.A.C.E. graduates are more productive, have lower rates of absenteeism, and advance faster in the workplace than factory workers who do not participate in the program. Not only do the women participating benefit from the program, but the factories also benefit by developing a more skilled and reliable workforce.

P.A.C.E. was designed and developed in partnership with Swasti Health Resources and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). CARE International is a key implementing partner. Gap Inc.’s vendor partners also play a critical role. One of these vendors in India that employs more than 60,000 workers has committed to extending P.A.C.E. to all workers by the year 2020. To date, more than 7,500 female garment workers have participated in the program.

“Education of female garment workers is a distinct way our company can support positive, lasting benefits for workers and their communities. Our deep knowledge of the apparel world, our partnerships with manufacturing vendors and local NGOs have allowed us to help make meaningful impact on the lives of thousands of women,” said Gap Inc. Chairman and CEO, Glenn Murphy.

Media Contact: 
Angela Leung Wasmer, Gap Inc. 415.427.2577
Mission Statement: 

About Gap Inc.
Gap Inc. is a leading global specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta
brands. Fiscal year 2010 net sales were $14.7 billion. Gap Inc. products are available for purchase in over 90 countries worldwide through about 3,100 company-operated stores, about 200 franchise stores, and e-commerce sites. For more information on Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program and other community investments, please visit www.gapinc.com/socialresponsibility

About ICRW
ICRW's mission is to empower women, advance gender equality and fight poverty in the developing world. To accomplish this, ICRW works with partners to conduct empirical research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based, practical ways to change policies and programs.

Former President Clinton Recognizes Gap Inc.'s P.A.C.E. Program

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Clinton praises workplace program’s approach to economically advance women
Wed, 09/21/2011
By Gillian Gaynair

Former President Clinton recognizes Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program that helps female garment workers advance economically. ICRW is Gap Inc.’s global strategic and evaluation partner on the program.

Gap Inc's P.A.C.E.Gap Inc.'s Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) program – in which the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a partner – was recognized today by former President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York as an exemplary approach to economically advancing women worldwide.

"If you want democracies to prove they can produce widespread prosperity...we have got to prove that growth can benefit everybody," Clinton said after Gap Inc. Board Member Bob Fisher presented an update on the P.A.C.E. program. "And it cannot happen unless we do more to make sure women get their fair share of it and that girls can work their way into it. That's why I really wanted this progress report today."

Gap Inc. launched P.A.C.E. in 2007 to provide female garment workers in developing countries life skills education and technical training to help them progress beyond entry-level positions. ICRW collaborated with Gap Inc. to design and evaluate initial efforts in garment factories in India and Cambodia. Today, P.A.C.E. operates in those countries as well as in Vietnam, Bangladesh, China and Sri Lanka – and ICRW continues to evaluate the program's impact globally under the leadership of Priya Nanda, group director of social and economic development at ICRW's Asia Regional Office.

Eighty percent of garment workers worldwide are women. Despite their presence in the workforce, few women advance to management positions or have the chance to build skills they need to grow professionally. P.A.C.E. attempts to change their path. To date, more than 7,500 female garment workers have participated in the program. And ICRW's research shows that the program has helped strengthen women's confidence, improve their communication skills in the workplace and encouraged them to save money regularly.

Through P.A.C.E., others – the women's families, their bosses and co-workers – also have benefited. This is key, according to Bobbi Silten, senior vice president of Gap Inc. Global Responsibility and president of Gap Foundation. Earlier this year at ICRW's first Passports to Progress discussion event, Silten stressed that it's important to the company that its investment not only advance women, but benefit their children and communities, too.

"We really believe that's the way to create sustainable programs," she said. "When everybody gets something, they keep doing it."

PACE Cambodia

Related article: Invest in a Woman, Grow the Economy

Learn more about how ICRW measures women's economic progress

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW's senior writer and editor.

Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment

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ICRW Defines Concepts and Indicators as Guidance
Fri, 09/16/2011
By Gillian Gaynair

No single program can address every underlying influence in the process to economically advance women. Instead, those working in global economic development should choose an area within the process where they can make the most difference – and measure its impact.

No single program can address every underlying influence in the process to economically advance women. Instead, those working in global economic development should choose an area within the process where they can make the most difference – and measure its impact, according to an upcoming paper by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

Scheduled to be released in October, the brief paper defines women’s economic empowerment and provides a framework developed by ICRW to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of economic advancement programs. The framework is built on concepts that ICRW experts gathered from existing literature and from their experience of integrating economic empowerment for women into programs and evaluating it.

“An increasing number of governments, corporations and donor organizations recognize that women’s involvement in the global marketplace is critical to alleviating poverty,” said Anne Marie Golla, a senior economist and evaluation specialist at ICRW. “But it became clear to us that many are unsure how to determine whether their work – and investments – are indeed economically empowering women.”

“We believe ICRW’s framework will help provide some guidance to practitioners, donors and other researchers working on the issue,” she said.

However, Golla stressed that for a woman living in impoverished conditions to arrive at a point where she is armed with the ability to make her own financial decisions and succeed economically, is a complex, multidimensional process. With that, “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to ensure the success of programs that focus on and want to measure women’s economic empowerment,” she said. “It depends on the context in which you’re working and which underlying factors that contribute to women’s empowerment you’re trying to address.”

Those factors vary, according to ICRW’s paper. They can include the resources available to help a woman prosper, such as skills training and loans, to the institutions that determine how those resources reach her, such as legal bodies. Each is an influential element on a woman’s path to economic empowerment.

The key to creating meaningful economic empowerment programs is to select a slice of this complex economic empowerment process where the most impact can be made – given the project timeframe and funding – and concentrate on that. ICRW also recommends that the project’s evaluation should align with the particular slice it chooses to address.

To provide more guidance, ICRW offers within its measurement framework several examples of indicators of success, not only at the individual and household levels but at the community and institutional levels, too.

“Measuring women’s economic empowerment is akin to measuring outcomes for poverty reduction,” noted Anju Malhotra, ICRW’s vice president of research, innovation and impact and a co-author of the paper. “It’s a complex process, but it can and should be measured.”

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW’s senior writer and editor.

ICRW's report, Understanding and Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment, is available for download.

ICRW Designs Approach to Measure Women's Economic Empowerment

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Experts Present New Framework at India Workshop
Wed, 05/04/2011
By Sandy Won

ICRW experts present a new framework to help development practitioners better understand how to design and evaluate programs to economically strengthen women.

ICRW experts present a new framework to help development practitioners better understand how to design and evaluate programs to economically strengthen women.

The U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) recently co-hosted a workshop to help development practitioners better understand how to design and measure the effectiveness of programs to economically empower women. Held in New Delhi, India, experts shared best practices for strengthening women economically in Asia and unveiled a new framework for how to evaluate programs’ success.

Being able to measure women’s economic empowerment is critical to reducing poverty and achieving broader development goals. After all, women make up a majority of the world’s poor, and economic growth lags without their full participation in markets. But women face constraints that men do not, including gender discrimination, misperceptions about their abilities and gaps in their education. Unless development efforts explicitly take such gender considerations into account, women can easily be left behind, ultimately undermining the long-term success of programs.

The framework presented at the “Conceptualizing Women’s Economic Empowerment” workshop provided a simple outline of what constitutes women’s economic empowerment and ways in which it can be measured. 

More than 40 attendees participated in the gathering from across Central, South and Southeast Asia, including DFID social development advisors and DFID project partners from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, India, Nepal, Tajikistan and Vietnam. The workshop also drew regional and international experts in women’s economic empowerment from organizations that included ICRW, the World Bank, U.N. Women and Women for Women International.

During sessions, participants examined various projects to draw lessons on what works and why. They discussed what women’s economic empowerment means. And they reviewed the new framework, designed by ICRW, for conceptualizing and measuring women’s economic empowerment to achieve results.

The framework stresses that a woman’s capacity to be economically competitive and her agency – essentially, her ability to make decisions, act and control resources – are both critically important to achieve change for women and their communities. Its design reflects the latest thinking on empowerment and ICRW’s expertise on the issue. The framework also was adapted based on discussions ICRW staff had with DFID project teams and participants during several site visits in Asia.

Although women’s economic empowerment is a complex, multidimensional process, it can and must be evaluated. As a next step, participants addressed the need for tools and guides on how to measure economic empowerment in plain, easy-to-understand language; how to integrate measures of women’s economic empowerment into projects, how to build a measurement and evaluation system that tracks a program’s outcomes and impacts, and how to use results to showcase program effectiveness and improve future programming.

Sandy Won is ICRW’s strategic communications manager.

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