Systems Expert
Brittany Dernberger, Senior Manager of Systems-Level Impact, CARE
ECD Expert
Sharon Goldfeld, Director of the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital
Moderator
Shekufeh Zonji, Global Technical Lead, ECDAN
Session Description
How can we measure and quantify systems-level impact? Acknowledging that conventional, direct program implementation will not meet the world’s urgent needs, CARE—an international NGO focused on women and girls—recognizes the need for structural change to achieve impact at scale. CARE has invested in conceptualizing, implementing, and measuring systems-level impact. Our multi-year learning journey has included an iterative approach, refining our measurement framework with each successive evaluation. We will share our measurement framework and practical, real-world examples of how we’ve measured systems-level change in different countries around the world. Participants will have the opportunity to practice applying these frameworks to their own ECD context.
We will also discuss the organizational learning that’s required to embed systems-level change strategies and comprehensively measure systems-level impact.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will develop a better understanding of the following:
- Applying a systems-change lens to ECD, depicting the system you’re trying to change and the desired outcomes.
- The steps to establish a systems-level impact measurement framework for a desired systems-change.
- How systems-level impact measurement differs from traditional program evaluation and the organizational shifts required to execute systems-level change evaluations.
Session Homework:
Please review the following resource before the session:
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Resources
Additional Resources:
Speaker Bios
Brittany Dernberger, Senior Manager of Systems-Level Impact, CARE
Dr. Brittany Dernberger is a sociologist and gender inequality expert who has led research and organizational learning across academia, philanthropy, government, large international NGOs, and small nonprofits. Brittany currently leads global initiatives to measure systems-level change at CARE and co-chairs the American Evaluation Association Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group. She co-led a global evaluation of CARE’s COVID-19 vaccination impact in 34 countries, an innovative approach to quantify the number of lives impacted by positively changing local-to-global systems. An accomplished mixed-methods researcher, Brittany’s research has been published in several academic journals and featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Hill, and Ms. Magazine. Previously, Brittany supported sexual assault research at the U.S. Department of Defense and led evaluation at the Steelcase Foundation.
Sharon Goldfeld, Director of the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital
Professor Sharon Goldfeld is a paediatrician, public health researcher and policy advisor focussing on child development and health equity. She is Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and Theme Director for Population Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. With a decade of experience in state government as a senior public servant in health and education, and an outstanding track record, Sharon has successfully straddled research and policy. Her expertise is highly sought after with appointments to government Expert Advisory Groups in health, education and social services departments including her recent appointment to the National Early Years Strategy Advisory Group.
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Have any questions or ideas for the series, contact [email protected].
For more resources on systems thinking, please visit the Systems Thinking for ECD webpage.