The Accord Research Alliance Podcast

Michael Woolcock has been at the World Bank for 20 years, where he is the Lead Social Scientist in the Development Research Group. For twelve years he has also been a (part-time) Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. As a sociologist, he's written about culture, social development, and social capital. Michael is also on the editorial board for Accord's new...

Have you ever wondered if Toms Shoes, child sponsorship, or de-worming interventions are really making a difference? Dr. Bruce Wydick,a professor of development economics at the University of San Francisco, shares from a researcher perspective about what kinds interventions are truly effective for holistic human flourishing. Dr. Wydick has a new book being released by Harper Collins in 2019 - The...

Today's podcast was recorded live at the end of the Spiritual Metrics and Research Intensive on October 29, 2018 at the Accord Forum in Ridgecrest, NC. The podcast's co-hosts, Kristen Check, Rodney Green, and Nathan Mallonee, are joined by David Bronkema to discuss their thoughts on the day and possible next steps for the Accord Research Alliance. The topic for the intensive was "Integrating Faith...

ARA Podcast Co-Host Rodney Green discusses partnering with a university professor on a mixed-methods case study. Show Notes: This study used a quasi-experimental differences in differences design with 4 comparison groups https://www.meda.org/innovate-projects http://www.worldrelief.org Email us at ara@accordnetwork.org with your ideas for future podcasts.

Interviewed by Kristen Check (Water Mission), Mikaela Cochran (Compassion International)describes how the Program Effectiveness Research team is using a quasi-experimental design to study the causal relationship between Compassion's programs and childhood development outcomes. https://www.compassion.com/ MCochran@us.ci.org

Interviewed by Rodney Green (World Relief), Matt Kistler (American Bible Society) describes a research project in Rwanda that required a translation of spiritual metrics from a US context to an international context. Link to the trauma-healing curriculum mentioned in the interview: https://bit.ly/2IIdaxu

Jeff Bloem is a PhD student in applied economics at the University of Minnesota. He's written several peer-reviewed papers, including a recent one on "measuring hope" in Myanmar and a program evaluation of the material, social, and spiritual impacts of a business skills training program in western Kenya. Jeff is also an active blogger on the topics of international development, economics, policy,...

Rebecca Mentzer & Josiah Meneghini discuss Listening, Monitoring and Evaluation at HOPE International - how they developed their unique M&E framework; their focus on “improving” rather than “proving”; successes, failures, and the tools and resources they use to measure program effectiveness; and what excites them in the research space right now. To learn more: www.hopeinternational.org learning re...

The REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey has been utilized with over 2,000 churches regarding spiritual health. Join Rodney Green from World Relief and Dr. Nancy Scammacca-Lewis to unpack how the survey can inform Christ-centered relief and development.

Jill DeTemple is an associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University. In 2012, Jill wrote "Cement, Earthworms, and Cheese Factories: Religion and Community Development in Rural Ecuador." She also serves on the steering committee for the Religion and International Development Group at the American Academy of Religion. This conversation covers ideas like "thinking religiousl...

Nathan Mallonee talks with Daudi Msseemmaa from Convoy of Hope about his experience during the organization's first impact evaluation. As the Regional Field Operations Director for Africa and Asia, Daudi had a unique perspective on what it was like to propose and help oversee an impact evaluation for a women's empowerment project in Ethiopia. He not only shares the results of the study, but he als...

Dr. Bryan Gouge and Matt Kistler are both Research Analysts from Global Scripture Impact, a team within the American Bible Society. Bryan, Matt, and Rodney Green discuss the value of qualitative research methods and the grounded theory approach in establishing an informed theory of change. Bryan and Matt are available for further questions: Bryan Gouge: bgouge@americanbible.org Matthew Kistler: mk...

Dr. Shannonhouse discusses her experience researching the role of religious coping with resource loss in disaster contexts, and shares resources and instruments for measuring spirituality including several she and her team at Wheaton’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute have recently developed. Show Notes: Laura's webpage: education.gsu.edu/profile/laura-shannonhouse/ HDI at Wheaton: www.wheaton.edu/...

Today on the podcast we talk with Laura Shannonhouse, Assistant Professor of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State. Laura is also a contributing fellow with the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College. The conversation with Laura was so rich, we will be releasing it in two parts. On today’s podcast, Part 1, we discuss the psychology of religion and spirituality, Laura’s...

Luis Noda, VP for Transformational Engagement at Food for the Hungry (FH), discusses the work he's doing in his new role around defining and building the organization's philosophy of transformational development. He also discusses why it's important for Christian organizations to think deeply about our theology for relief and development. Email us your feedback at ara@accordnetwork.org Resources &...

Dr. Ray Norman, WASH Director of Faith Leadership at World Vision shares about how spiritual metrics has been integrated in their WASH programming in West and East Africa. Beyond the Margins Film - Africa WASH and Disability Study partnership between Messiah College Collaboratory and World Vision: http://www.wvi.org/disability-inclusion/video/beyond-margins Dr. Ray Norman's Book - "Dangerous Love:...

Lincoln Lau, Director of Research at International Care Ministries (ICM), talks about how he reluctantly became a researcher, how he got connected to ICM, and why ICM is serious about gathering good evidence through RCTs. Bonus: he also goes into why researchers need to be thinking about epistemology. Email us your feedback at ara@accordnetwork.org Links: ICM: https://www.caremin.com/ Lincoln's fa...

Chad Hayward, Executive Director of the Accord Network, talks with us about the annual One Accord Forum and the role of research and evaluation in "measuring all that matters" to support the work of member organizations. Learn more at www.accordnetwork.org.

Today on the podcast Moriah and Kristen are LIVE from the One Accord Forum in Ridgecrest, NC. Moriah walks us through what it was like conducting Feed My Starving Children's first large-scale longitudinal study as a one-person M&E team, and some useful lessons learned along the way. Reach out to Moriah to learn more at: www.fmsc.org / motto@fmsc.org.

Kate Williams, Quantitative Research Manager for Compassion International, shares about the reasons why rigor is important for measuring what matters.

Nathan Mallonee talks with Kristen Check, program evaluation coordinator at Water Mission and one of the co-hosts of this podcast. Find out more about a major evaluation project Water Mission has been working on over the past year and what Kristen's experience has been as anthropologist working for a water engineering organization. To find out more about Water Mission, visit http://watermission.or...

In this episode of the Accord Research Alliance Podcast, we speak with Dr. Stephen Offutt, Associate Professor of Development Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary, about development studies at Asbury, how faith intersects with both poverty and development and what existing poverty indices have failed to consider, and touch on the Accord Research Project, an exciting new study Dr. Offutt conducte...

This is the first podcast from the Accord Research Alliance. Nathan Mallonee, Kristen Check, and Rodney Green discuss what the Accord Network is, what the Accord Research Alliance does, and why we started this podcast. Email us at ara@accordnetwork.org with your ideas for future podcasts. "Cheery Monday" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License ht...