The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) entrusted MDF T&C with the critical task of evaluating their first-ever global programmatic strategy. The challenge of the Mid Term Review (MTR) was to create an objective analysis of DRC staff perspectives and experiences with the global Strategy and generate lessons that would lead to meaningful adaptations and strategic focus. This was no easy task. However, through careful communication and a collaborative approach – which included validation workshops and the co-creation of action plans – we enabled DRC's leadership to leverage our findings for strategic growth.

‍Evaluation challenge

DRC is one of the world's largest humanitarian organisations, with about 8,500 staff working in 40 countries, all facing different contexts and realities. This makes evaluating the global strategy far from a walk in the park. The challenge is to synthesise all the different views and experiences and develop an analysis that is recognisable to all actors involved, facilitating meaningful learning about what went well (where), and supporting DRC in identifying how best to improve the strategic focus.

Communicating evaluation findings

The way evaluators synthesise and communicate the evaluation findings is pivotal to ensuring the insights are used by the organisations we serve. We aim for our sometimes critical yet constructive conclusions and recommendations to drive positive change, rather than being disregarded.

The moment evaluators share, present, or discuss the evaluation findings with the organisations involved often leads to appreciation (when findings, even if critical, resonate with existing knowledge). However, evaluation findings can also trigger denial or resistance because the conclusions can sometimes be painful. Those who receive the evaluation report – even if they commissioned the evaluation and thus asked for feedback – may feel uncomfortable with the evaluation's assessment or judgement, primarily due to the changes it could bring; they fear the consequences.

Dealing with initial resistance

For us as evaluators to drive change, it is crucial to recognise that an initially resistant reaction is part of the change cycle of people and organisations. We should not take it personally, and it does not mean we did a poor job. When facing reservations about findings, our responsibilities include verifying the accuracy and appropriateness of the evaluation’s evidence once more and reflecting on the expressed critique while helping clients to focus on future recommendations.

Appreciative approach

Despite the overall appreciative approach used throughout the process, the MTR of the Danish Refugee Council’s Strategy did spark some initial reservations. Our evaluators understood the discomfort some of the conclusions caused, acknowledging that the global strategy was new for many and that significant effort had been made to roll it out from scratch. We highlighted the research limitations and justified the methodology used, reassuring them that the triangulation of findings was done appropriately.

Sensemaking workshop and action planning

During the annual conference with the Country Directors, MDF facilitated a sensemaking workshop in which conclusions were validated, and focus was placed on future opportunities and strengths within the organisation: enabling action plans to be co-created based on the recommendations. In the end, the final MTR report was very well received by the management team, and the findings resonated strongly with the country directors.

Conclusion: Learning from critical yet constructive feedback

In the case of the Danish Refugee Council MTR of the Strategy 2025, our evaluators overcame the challenge of presenting critical but constructive feedback, facilitating the process from resistance to learning, and increasing the likelihood that our evaluation leads to meaningful and positive changes for future strategy development.

Testimonial

"The report, and the insights it has provided, will be instrumental in the subsequent strengthening of the Danish Refugee Council’s implementation of its global Strategy, and inform the next strategic cycle. MDF’s services in this work have been highly professional and consistently of good quality." – Danish Refugee Council

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