A look at what’s ahead for our Global Development and Population program

Alfonsina Peñaloza, Program Officer, Women’s Economic Empowerment

Having been involved in the design of this strategy, I look forward to understanding how the field has evolved. Our grantees have done amazing work and I am keen to learn what some of their successes have been. As with any strategic evaluation, I also hope to learn how we can improve our strategy, so that we can contribute to women’s agency over their own lives, bodies and work. Strategic evaluations are only as good as they are useful, so I hope that this refresh is inclusive; I expect the process to include meaningful participation of our partners and, most importantly, hope that its results can be of use to them and their own work.

Althea Anderson, Program Officer, International Reproductive Health and Women’s Economic Empowerment

Working across these two strategies, I am excited about the opportunity to enhance how we support women’s productive and reproductive lives holistically, as well as the social and economic environment to advance women’s rights. Over the next year, we are deeply committed to engaging our grantee partners and in-country experts in the strategy refreshes authentically to ensure that the processes are collaborative, inclusive, and beneficial to sustaining their work. Building on our existing partnerships, I am eager to learn about promising opportunities to leverage our investments across the Global Development and Population Program to strengthen African institutions.

Janet Holt, Program Officer, International Reproductive Health

I am looking forward to a transparent process that will be grounded in grantee and beneficiary voices. In partnership with internal and external stakeholders, I am excited to systematically take stock of the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, to learn from our grantmaking under the current strategy and to collectively evolve the Hewlett Foundation’s role in improving the health and wellbeing of women and girls.

Nathalie Scholl, Program Associate, Global Development and Population

I look forward to learning more about the international reproductive health portfolio and the many challenges that its grantees are contending with. I am excited to learn about potential synergies across portfolios and how combining forces could shape this refresh process.

Norma Altshuler, Program Officer, Evidence-Informed Policymaking and Women’s Economic Empowerment

In the past five years, our grantee partners have made tremendous progress, including while facing stiff headwinds. I look forward to learning how we can work together to have even greater impact going forward.

Lori Grange, Strategy Officer, Effective Philanthropy Group

Outcome-Focused Philanthropy, at its core, is about learning and adaptation. The foundation’s staff try to learn and adapt throughout their work. These comprehensive reviews provide an opportunity to take a bigger step back—looking back and looking forward thoughtfully, conscientiously, respectfully, and in true partnership with our grantees and other stakeholders. As the foundation’s strategy officer, I’m excited to work with the Global Development and Population team on this journey—and privileged to be part of their and ​​their partners’ efforts to further women’s reproductive and economic choices.  

Amy Arbreton, Evaluation Officer, Effective Philanthropy Group

As the foundation’s Evaluation Principles and Practices Guide describes “When it comes to strategy-level evaluation, typically, no single evaluation can tell us if a strategy has been successful or is on track. Such a comprehensive assessment—commonly used to inform a strategy refresh—requires synthesis of multiple evaluations of smaller, cluster-level evaluations; summary and analysis of relevant implementation markers; and active reflection on, and interpretation of, the results in context.”  I’m looking forward to a refresh process and “look back” that engages with internal and external stakeholders to reflect and build on lessons learned from numerous substrategy evaluations commissioned to date, along with new information from the “look back” we will engage with as part of the refresh process.

May Aguiar, Program Associate, Global Development and Population

I hope this process can express and strengthen Hewlett’s desire to serve and listen to our grantees, and as a result, that it open opportunities for candid and balanced interactions with our partners.

Jasmine Sudarkasa, Fellow, Effective Philanthropy

As a woman raised on the African continent, I look forward to connecting my lived experience with our strategic learning agenda. As a fellow, I am excited to support teams in the application of values to practice throughout the refresh process, and to learn from an intersectional “look-back” on our strategy thus far, particularly as we approach Beijing 2020 and beyond.