Reflections on COVID-19 and internal evaluation in a humanitarian non-profit
| Author | Leanne M Kelly |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X221109310 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Practice Articles |
Practice Article
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2023, Vol. 23(1) 40–58
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/1035719X221109310
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Reflections on COVID-19 and
internal evaluation in a
humanitarian non-profit
Leanne M Kelly
Australian Red Cross, Australia
Abstract
This article uses reflective practice and social interdependence theory to unpack the
ways in which our practice as internal evaluators was impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic, using the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework as a case
study. The reflections are separated into six stages: description, feelings, evaluation,
analysis, conclusion and action plan. Initial reflections on the impact of COVID-19 drew
out the negative effects of the pandemic and associated restrictions, which limited our
ability to build rapport and stretched our capacity to balance work and home com-
mitments. Deeper investigation revealed that the disaster pushed us to develop new
ways of working that will augment and improve our future efforts. We foresee that
these learnings will enable a future with greater ability to offer hybrid online/face-
to-face collaborative opportunities that will enhance inclusion and active participation,
thereby promoting monitoring and evaluation with greater collective ownership and
relevance to a wider audience.
Keywords
monitoring and evaluation, internal evaluation, humanitarian, emergency services,
COVID-19
Introduction
In the opening months of 2020, the domestic emergency services team at Australian
Red Cross embarked on an overhaul of our largely ad hoc and fragmented internal
Corresponding author:
Leanne M Kelly, Emergency Services, Australian Red Cross, 23-47 Villiers Street, North Melbourne,
Victoria 3125, Australia.
Email: lkelly@redcross.org.au
monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. The virus causing COVID-19 entered
Australia in late January and, by mid-March 2020, Victoria’s borders were shut and
personnel from the Melbourne head office were encouraged to work from home.
Meanwhile, staff across the country were otherwise affected by restrictions, including
to interstate travel, social gathering limits, physical distancing and the closure of non-
essential services. As we are based in Naarm/Melbourne on Bunurong and Wurundjeri
Country, which has experienced the world’slongest lockdowns in response to COVID-
19, we critically reflect on how the pandemic restrictions affected our ability as internal
evaluators to collaboratively and inclusively develop an M&E framework. This article
is written by one of the two national M&E leads for the emergency services team;
however, as we job share one full-time load, I refer to we, meaning the two of us,
throughout the article and acknowledge my colleague’s input in the work, reflections on
the work and checking of this article.
This article is written as a personal narrative using Gibbs’(1988) reflective cycle and
the theory of social interdependence to unpack our experience. As such, it is deeply
subjective and aims to surface our learning and innovation to support critically re-
flective practice as a key aspect of good evaluation (Patton, 2011,2015). Additionally,
these learnings have particular relevance for those in internal evaluation roles whose
work is embedded and continuous within an organisation. Rather than providing
guidance on the development of an M&E framework per se, which is covered in the
scholarly and grey literature (e.g., Markiewicz & Patrick, 2016), this article uses the
framework development as a case study to present our experience of remote and hybrid
collaborative M&E. The mechanisms employed to enhance meaningfulness and uti-
lisation of internal M&E under these challenging conditions may assist others dealing
with similar circumstances.
This article builds on a significant base of literature regarding the effectiveness of
virtual teams. The literature has a broad reach across organisational psychology, social
psychology, management studies, human resources, behavioural studies and sociology.
Research conducted years prior to COVID-19 highlights useful insights and frame-
works for understanding effective teamwork. These provide guidance for establishing
virtual teams and note the importance of careful consideration of team composition,
transparent communication, clarified group goals and individual roles, clear bound-
aries, rewards for effort, respectful group culture, flexible management and adequate
resourcing (Axtell et al., 2004;Hertel et al., 2004,2005;Lurey & Raisinghani, 2001;
Maznevski & Chudoba, 2000). While this body of literature provided a valuable
foundation for understanding factors of effective virtual teamwork, the rapid, unan-
ticipated movement of our whole team into the remote space signified an unprecedented
and disruptive situation that is more accurately captured by the literature on virtual
teams that has been published specifically about the pandemic. This literature examines
how teams rapidly pivoted to working remotely without the luxury of well-planned
change management processes and how this movement impacted wellbeing and group
functioning (Al-Habaibeh et al., 2021;S
¸entürk et al., 2021;Wang et al., 2021;Whillans
et al., 2021;Yang et al., 2022).
Kelly 41
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