Assessment and learning

We understand evaluation as a learning process about our added value as social actors committed to social transformation.

Our projects aim to bring about sustained transformative changes. We believe that worthwhile and enduring changes can only come about through reflection, learning and organizational learning.

Ubora carries out evaluations focused on organizational learning, committed to supporting initiatives aiming for transformative change through the projects, programs, and strategies under evaluation. Monitoring and evaluation also integrate lessons learned and good practices and are aimed at identifying emerging scenarios and sustainability factors in order to redirect or build consensus and ownership of strategies and theories of change.

Evaluation enables us to learn from the processes and social dynamics that emerge, helping us understand how we can contribute to change by generating added value as an organization in the context in which we operate—understood as a dynamic and complex ecosystem.

We recognize the challenge of aligning diverse interests in complex and ever-changing environments. That’s why, over the past decades, we’ve specialized in shaping evaluation processes that are complexity-aware, effective, and engaging. Our evaluations help gather solid information on what works well, what doesn’t, and why. This creates practical opportunities to identify the impact of our mission and generate continuous improvement processes.

Types of evaluation

Mid-term or Final Evaluations of Programs and Projects

We evaluate the design, process, results, and sustainability factors of a program or project at local, national, regional, or international levels.

Participatory and Decolonial Approach to Evaluation

– We promote participatory evaluations that create empowering spaces for the people and communities involved in the projects, always respecting their identities, histories, and struggles.
– We adopt a decolonial approach to evaluation, which means doing things differently:
Encouraging questioning of the power structures guiding decisions.
Listening to and prioritizing the communities as protagonists.
Promoting co-creation and the search for solutions that respect and value local knowledge.
Ensuring inclusive and participatory processes that recognize multiple forms of intersectional oppression in every evaluation we carry out.
Chevy Solís, from the UBORA team, facilitates these processes.

Evaluación de la estrategia o de programas (5 años)

Evaluamos y analizamos la eficacia del “desempeño/performance” de un plan estratégico o Teoría del cambio organizacional, y de sus objetivos asociados. Es una evaluación interna que puede ser o bien puntual, o bien continua. Incluye los procesos organizacionales estratégicos y ayuda a determinar qué estrategias están funcionando o cuáles necesitan ajustes.

Fund or Portfolio Evaluation

We evaluate projects, programs, or initiatives carried out by one or several organizations working within a specific funding framework (fund/portfolio/sectoral/geographic).

Training Evaluation

We evaluate capacity-building strategies (through training pathways of various kinds). We identify and systematize the different processes of change (understood as chains of meaningful and transformative change) that arise from the training actions, aimed at generating changes in learning, skills, behaviors, and both individual and organizational practices. We also assess their potential multiplying effects within the organization, the social impact of these changes, and their long-term sustainability.

Ex-Ante Evaluation

We assess project and program proposals within the framework of calls generated by funds or public tenders.

How do we evaluate?

We work as facilitators, with the active participation and contribution of the organization (learning partners), oriented toward organizational learning and collective sense-making (sense making) at strategic, organizational, and operational levels. UBORA conducts inclusive, utility-focused evaluations: evaluations must, above all, be useful to organizations

Although evaluations often focus on programs and projects, it is organizations that implement them. Therefore, the ability to evaluate, understand, and advise on aspects of organizational capacity development and process improvement, including networking, is key. We link this to quality in internal organizational management and incorporate the identification of best practices and innovative aspects that respond to emerging contexts.

We evaluate with methodological rigor: we provide analytical robustness to ensure the validity and reliability of the evidence, based on the premise that we live in an interconnected world. Everything affects everything; nothing is isolated. Therefore, we include a (system thinking) approach in evaluations

A system comprises many interrelated actors and parts. To improve any component of a system, we must consider how actors and parts affect each other and how the broader context shapes interactions. The context may lead us to address a factor that was not initially obvious but proves crucial for enabling change later on.

We incorporate a decolonial perspective in project and program evaluation

This approach allows us to question and dismantle hegemonic narratives that have historically perpetuated inequalities, and to promote practices that recognize and respect the voices, experiences, and knowledge of historically oppressed communities. It not only improves the quality of project evaluations but also emphasizes questioning power relations and identifying best practices around mutual respect and justice.

In every evaluation and process design, we ensure that the communities or individuals involved in the project are the protagonists of the change they wish to see, and that the results generate a real and sustainable impact based on their own realities.

We evaluate using mixed methods. These allow us to perform comparative analyses using tools adapted the needs of the organizations or networks and their intervention programs

We incorporate various methodological approaches (theory of change, outcome harvesting mainly, among others) depending on the needs and objectives identified with the organization. These approaches help us articulate our assumptions to test them, understand the context in which the intervention aims to act, and assess the organization’s capacities and real contribution as an agent of change and social transformation.

We structure the evaluation exercise into dimensions that allow for comprehensive assessments, including a holistic analysis that does not only focus on outcomes

To achieve this, UBORA incorporates the dimensions of Design, Process, Results, Learning and Innovation, Emerging Scenarios, and Sustainability Factors— a methodology developed by UBORA and under constant review.

Our Services will help you to

Assess the effects, scope, and changes that occur in the medium and long term through the project or program, as well as their nature (emerging scenarios and sustainability factors), both during implementation (ongoing internal evaluation and external mid-term evaluation) and after completion (final external evaluation), using innovative tools such as Outcome Harvesting, Contribution Analysis , Theory of Change, tailored to the needs, objectives and nature of interventions.
Evaluate the impact of capacity-strengthening strategies (training pathways) of organizations, or their training actions in the short, medium, and long term.
Learn from and systematize M&E processes and their results to improve organizational practices and validate (or not) their strategies (Theory of Change at the organizational or programmatic level), redirecting planned actions in accordance with the nature/emerging scenarios of the context in which they are developed.

Our Partners and Clients

Our clients are non-governmental organizations, third-sector entities, and public administration bodies, operating locally and internationally—from global networks to grassroots organizations.