Enhancing learning from evaluations in newborn and child health

Operational learning from projects and programmes in newborn and child health in the international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and the charity sector is vast. However, it is currently often not fully shared or used. A participatory action research event brought together 29 UK-based individuals from operational and academic sectors to identify and discuss concerns and recommendations for enhancing learning from project and programme evaluations and inform future dialogue with country-level partners. To enhance learning from evaluations of projects and programmes, the broader influences on how knowledge generation is approached must be addressed, including the role of institutional and governmental funding partners, and a ‘fear of failure’ culture in the INGO and charity sectors. Localisation of evaluation activities must be supported within the wider informational landscape, including through effective partnerships. Lastly, transformation of systems to enable better access to findings and reports of evaluations is needed.