Margie Buchanan-Smith

Margie Buchanan-Smith is a leading evaluator of humanitarian action. She has over 30 years of experience in the humanitarian aid sector as a policy researcher, evaluator, practitioner, trainer and coach. She co-authored the ALNAP guide to evaluation of humanitarian action, published in 2016, and is widely known in the sector for her work in supporting evaluation training and improved evaluation practices. She has led numerous and complex evaluations of humanitarian action for UN agencies, NGOs, and governments. She has first-hand experience leading teams to evaluate remotely. As an accomplished trainer, facilitator, and qualified and experienced coach, Margie has experimented with different learning-oriented methods during evaluations. She co-authored ‘From Real-Time Evaluation to Real-Time Learning. Exploring new approaches from the Covid-19 response’, published by ALNAP in 2021. Margie is a Senior Research Associate with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute in London and a Visiting Fellow with the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University.

Courses and workshops

II-d: Evaluating Humanitarian Action: Steps, Challenges, and Real-time Learning

What sets apart evaluations of humanitarian action? This workshop offers an overview of the critical steps and challenges in evaluating humanitarian action and how to address them; a deep dive into real-time learning-oriented evaluation, using case studies from Ukraine and elsewhere; practitioner insights into the ethical aspects of humanitarian evaluation; and cross-cutting considerations for evaluations, including accountability to affected persons and localization.

Instructor(s)Dmytro Kondratenko, Hana Abul Husn, Margie Buchanan-Smith

LevelIntroductory to intermediate