This study set-out as an evaluation of Symphonia's Partners for Possibility leadership development programme for school principals in South Africa. Broadly, the goal of the programme is to improve the educational outcomes of under-resourced schools. The primary audience of this evaluation is the Partners for Possibility Operations Manager. During initial engagement with the programme stakeholders the feasibility of different evaluation types were considered. These deliberations centred on one of, or combination of, the following evaluation types: theory evaluation, process evaluation and outcomes evaluation. At first it appeared that an outcomes evaluation was entirely possible. After examining if an outcomes evaluation is feasible it became clear it was impossible to do this. As a result the focus shifted from outcome evaluation to what other kind of evaluation was feasible and acceptable to programme staff. In order to determine this, the evaluability assessment approach was utilised in order to conduct a theory evaluation and to determine if it was possible to obtain, at reasonable cost, relevant performance data. The revised programme theory behind the Partners for Possibility's programme was derived via semi-structured interviews with the programme Stakeholder Engagement Consultant and Operations Manager. A thorough analysis of programme documentation and the programme website also informed the development of the revised programme theory. The plausibility of the revised programme theory was assessed by conducting a literature review of similar evaluations and related literature. The literature review suggests that the revised programme theory is plausible. The revised programme theory can be summarised as follows: if the programme incorporates activities associated with both the instructional and transformational leadership development models then principals will be able to address the barriers that prevent their school from improving its educational outcomes. The results of the investigation into, is it possible to obtain relevant performance monitoring data, found that this was not possible. This investigation did determine that the programme has designed a monitoring system that effectively maps onto the process theory that was developed as part of the theory evaluation. However, semi-structured interviews with the Operations Manager and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant revealed that this monitoring system was not systematically maintained and that data was not available. This finding is what compromised the ability for an outcomes evaluation to proceed. It is strongly recommended that the programme staff implement and make use of their monitoring system. If the programme staff do this then a process evaluation is recommended for the programme in order to determine if the programme is implemented with fidelity.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The concept of leadership is diverse and complex. Organisations that strive to be successful often turn to their leaders to drive efficiency and performance and to create a competitive advantage using human capital. There has been a noticeable shift in the past decade with regards to what constitutes an excellent leader. The most effective leaders are more focused on people than on outcomes, and are committed to the wellbeing and satisfaction of employees. The South African business environment has somewhat influenced the way organisations operate. Changing legislation and an ethnically diverse workplace means that leaders have to be equipped to manage change and transformation. This adds to the skill set that an effective leader should possess. Given the ever-changing nature of the business environment, there is pressure on leaders to remain charismatic and adaptable, and to ensure the same for their teams. The Leadership Development Programme evaluated as part of this research was implemented at a leading asset management organisation in Cape Town, South Africa. The programme was developed internally and has been in existence for six years. Although the programme is viewed in a positive light, these opinions are mostly based on perceptions, rather than research; and therefore the evaluation effectiveness. The programme aims to increase the leadership knowledge, skills and abilities of the participants and in turn create excellent leaders who are capable of driving organisational efficiency and performance.

The ongoing international atrocity of animal abuse is a persistent and widespread social problem within human society. The maltreatment of animals, particularly in rural impoverished contexts in South Africa continues to be a pertinent challenge facing local animal welfare organisations. Upon identifying the need to improve the conditions of animals living in the Darling community, the Swartland SPCA approached the evaluator in order to design a plausible humane education programme. The evaluator began this research by reviewing the history and underlying principles of humane education, the efficacy of humane education, as well as formalised humane education programmes. Findings from the review revealed that humane education programmes hold diminished capability for the achievement of improved animal welfare when implemented in isolation. Although these programmes aim to affect behavioural change in order to respond to the problem of animal welfare, behavioural change is not easily achieved with a simple intervention such as humane education. Thus, designing a programme for the Swartland SPCA based solely on the logic of humane education with the expectation of behavioural change was deemed problematic. Subsequently, the evaluator endeavoured to develop a novel programme design to target the problem of animal welfare in Darling. Increasingly, research points to the need for a multifaceted approach in dealing with the problem of animal maltreatment due to its complex nature as well as the fact that it is based on a large number of confounding personal, familial, social, cultural and psychological factors. To address this need, the evaluator, in consultation with the SPCA, identified a number of possible reasons as to why the problem of animal welfare was a prevalent issue within the Darling community. This highlighted the need for additional interventions that could be employed holistically to alleviate the problem of animal abuse. Given that this research concerns the welfare of animals in terms of human-directed behaviours, it was decided that humane education as a form of intervention should be investigated further in its ability to affect attitudinal change in conjunction with violence prevention and peer education / modelling interventions as additional programme components. In order to affect interpersonal violence at a behavioural level, a violence prevention component was selected with the hope that reductions in interpersonal violence may extent toward the reduction of violence and abusive behaviour towards animals. Finally, peer education / role modelling was selected as a means of involving community members in the promotion of animal welfare via the concepts developed from the humane education programme component. Since an improvement of animal welfare conditions is essentially dependant on the performance of individual behaviours, grounding the programme in a theory of behaviour change was identified as an important first step in the programme design. As such, Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour was utilised as a behaviour change model in order to guide the programme's design framework and to ensure that the programme components corresponded with theoretically identified mechanisms of behavioural change. It was anticipated that utilising a multidimensional programme design rooted in a theory of behaviour change would increase the likelihood of achieving the link between attitudinal change and behavioural change. Therefore, this evaluation provides the Swartland SPCA with a broad-based programme design which provides a variable-oriented insight into the proposed mechanisms of change and can be utilised as a framework in the adaption of programme components. It is envisioned that this tool be used by the programme stakeholders to decide on intended outcomes, select the programme activities, and further define the design details thereof. A number of recommendations are also made in order to assist with the successful implementation of this programme and its sub-components in the long term. These include lobbying for the inclusion of animal welfare and violence prevention content as part of national school curricula, obtaining a violence prevention partner organisation to assist with certain implementation considerations, and finally the importance of continuous community engagement and involvement prior to and during the programme’s roll out.

Includes bibliographical references / This dissertation is both an assessment of the fidelity, and outcomes, of a parenting programme. The programme is implemented by The Parent Centre, a non-profit organisation (NPO) which provides a range of support services for caregivers of children. The primary audience for this dissertation includes programme stakeholders such as the organisation's director, programme manager and programme facilitators. The programme theory underpinning this intervention was created in collaboration with programme stakeholders and expert opinion. Briefly, this theory assumes that by participating in the parenting programme, caregivers are likely to benefit from learning positive parenting techniques which, when used, will catalyse improvements in the relationship they have with their children, and their children's behaviour. A literature review of similar programmes' effectiveness was conducted to assess its plausibility. This review found evidence which largely supported the programme's theory. This programme theory helped guide the focus of the evaluation. A total of nine evaluation questions were formulated. Two of these aimed to determine whether the programme was implemented with fidelity. The remaining seven aimed to determine the extent to which the programme was effective in improving its intended parent and child outcomes. A range of measures were employed to answer these questions. Implementation fidelity was assessed through asking programme facilitators to complete sessional checklists, collect programme attendance and participant homework checklists for each session. A randomised controlled trial design was used to assess programme outcomes; pre and post-test interviews were conducted in people's homes which utilised a range of measures. The programme was found to be implemented with high levels of fidelity. Despite high levels of engagement also being demonstrated by those who attended, attendance rates were overall quite low. Limited evidence for programme effectiveness was found using both an intention to treat analysis, and after conducting a second analysis which took into consideration a moderator of programme effectiveness i.e., programme attendance. Poor levels of programme attendance, as well as ceiling effects on some measures at pre-test , changes in the control group over time due to control group participants accessing other parenting assistance, reactivity to the questionnaire, and finally having the post-test conducted immediately after the programme was completed , are all factors which likely contributed to one finding limited evidence for programme effectiveness. Despite these factors hindering one's ability to determine programme effectiveness, further analyses are tentatively recommended based on the results that were found. Once participants have been allowed further time to practice programme skills, it is possible that programme effects may be found. Therefore, a long-term follow-up will likely allow one to come to a stronger conclusion regarding programme effectiveness. Finally, a few recommendations are made with regards to programme design, content, delivery and monitoring of outcomes. Continued emphasis on praise, and some coverage of consistent discipline may increase the programme's effectiveness. Keeping group sizes smaller and including only parents of children of the specified ages will help ensure it is relevant to programme participants. Introducing a basic pre and post programme completion questionnaire will allow The Parent Centre to track outcome achievement over time and facilitate an understanding of participant demographics. More recommendations will be able to be made once the one-year follow-up is completed. This dissertation addresses the gaps in the literature regarding parenting programme effectiveness in South Africa, and low and middle-income countries in general.

Global citizenship programmes are proliferating around the globe, particularly in the higher education environment. The increase in such programmes has resulted from the need to produce socially - responsible graduates equipped to handle the increasingly global, complex and diverse future. Many global citizenship service learning programmes utilise the engaged and critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire. This pedagogy facilitates students in engaging critically with a variety of perspectives and encourages them to think independently. The University of Cape Town's (UCT's) Global Citizenship Programme: Leading for Social Justice was implemented through the Centre for Higher Education Development at the university from 2010 onwards. This programme utilises Freire's critical pedagogy and provides UCT students with a guided, reflective opportunity to think about themselves in the context of the world and about global issues within their local context. An iterative cycle of learning, action and reflection underpins the each of the programme's three modules. Modules can be taken individually or in any order while a student is registered at UCT. The UCT Global Citizenship Programme is the evaluand for this evaluation. The evaluation process consisted of four parts, namely: theory, design, service utilisation and short - term outcome e valuations. As the programme had not been evaluated previously, the programme stakeholders were interested in working with the evaluator to articulate the programme theory, assessing it for plausibility and determining what design and pedagogy is used in other global citizenship programmes. Service utilisation was also of interest to the stakeholders and a process evaluation focusing on whether the programme is targeting and reaching its intended recipients was also undertaken. In addition, the evaluator explored possible short - term outcomes achieved by the GC2 module, to shed light on whether the programme is producing proximal outcomes with its current approach and pedagogy. This evaluation provided an articulated theoretical grounding for the GC Programme. The theory and design evaluation produced an articulated programme theory, from the perspective of the programme stakeholders, which was modified through consultation with the social science literature. The programme was found to be comparable to the majority of other such programmes in terms of its overarching design and pedagogy. The blended - learning approach in the GC Programme was found to be a unique feature compared with other global citizenship programmes. The process evaluation of the service utilisation found that the programme reaches a small proportion of its envisioned target population, despite two of the three modules having reached their maximum class size (~100 students). This is due to the current broad definition of the target population used, which effectively includes all UCT students. Females and students from the Commerce and Humanities faculties are over - represented in the programme when compared to the general UCT student population. A word cloud analysis for the short - term outcome e valuation indicated that it is possible that the programme participants may be achieving the outcomes for GC2. Due to the fact that there is limited evaluation research in the area of global citizenship programmes, this study makes a contribution to this research and evaluation area. The recommendations suggested in this study provide workable improvements that the GC Programme staff could make to this largely sound and popular programme. By taking, in particular, the recommended steps to measure outcomes, the GC Programme could provide a much stronger case for the impact of this well - conceived programme on UCT's students.

This dissertation reports on a design and outcome evaluation of the Commerce First Year Experience (FYEM) programme. The FYEM programme is implemented by the Centre of Higher Education Department at the University of Cape Town. The FYEM programme is an academic and social supportive cooperation between universities faculties, departments, mentors and facilities for first year Commerce students. The collective efforts intend to: i) provide the first year students with a sense of belonging, ii) help students to adapt to university, and iii) offer academic and emotional to the students. A three repeated measure was used for this study. The measures were conducted in May, June and July. The first set of evaluation questions were based on the design of the programme: i) should mentoring be compulsory for first year students? ii) what is the effective duration for tertiary mentoring, iii) what is the most effective way of assigning mentors to mentees? and iv) what is the most effective medium for mentoring relationships? The second set of questions was based on the intended short-term outcomes of the programme: v) did the mentoring programme improve the psychosocial and academic attributes of students at observation time one to observation time two? vi) were these effects sustainable, meaning did the students continue to improve even after the end of the programme between observation time two and observation time three? and vii) was a difference between mentored and non-mentored students over time? The theory design results illustrated that selecting appropriate mentors requires setting up criteria based on certain characteristics. The duration of mentoring should be one year to allow the full transition of first-year students to the university. Another result showed that mentoring should be compulsory for the first year students provided that there is an opt-out option. Mentors and mentees should be given the opportunity to select their preferred individuals to work with and not be randomly assigned. Additionally, the most effective medium for mentoring was group sessions instead of one on one. The short-term outcome results for the mentoring programme were statistically insignificant due to the small sample size. There was, however, a small improvement in the means of the psychosocial and academic outcomes. After three months of the programme, there were no significant differences between the mentored and non-mentored students. The sample size may have contributed to the lack of effect as well as lack of qualitative data. In conclusion, it is evident that FYEM programme results were statistically insignificant. However, positive increases were observed for the mentored students’ sense of belonging, peer interaction, academic adjustment and engagement. The limitations of this study must be addressed so that more reliable and valid data can be gathered. The results from the design evaluation component can be used to improve the programmes’ implementation in 2017.

This dissertation reports a theory, process and outcome evaluation of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust's (RCCTT) Birds and Bees programme. The Birds and Bees is a peer education programme that aims to create safer schools by decreasing incidents of sexual violence in schools and increasing the reporting of sexual violence. The programme in its current form has been implemented in high schools in Khayelitsha since 2009 and this dissertation focuses on two high schools in Khayelitsha that received the programme throughout 2013.The Birds and Bees programme theory was investigated for its utility and plausibility and a revised programme theory was proposed. Eight questions relating to the implementation of the programme were posed in order to assess whether the programme was implemented as intended. These questions related to the selection and attendance of peer educators, their ability to fulfil their role, the suitability of the peer educators' supervisors and the implementation of school activities and supervision meetings. Five questions regarding outcomes were posed that enquired about the effectiveness of the school safety plan, the number of learners who approached the peer educators for advice and the number of learners who reported sexual violence and accessed the services of the RCCTT. The evaluation used secondary data collected throughout 2013 and included interviews with the programme coordinator and the two supervisors responsible for the training and supervision of the peer educators. Data analysis methods included the use of descriptive statistics for the pre- and post-test data and QSR International's NVivo 10 software for qualitative data.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-46). / Many contemporary organisations implement programmes to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Such organisations invest money and human capital into such programmes and this has given rise to the need for accountability of these programmes. The field of programme evaluation makes use of social science research methods to investigate the effectiveness of programmes and to offer guidance on how best to improve these programmes. Programme evaluation has different approaches and theory-driven evaluation is one such approach. This dissertation makes use of the theory-driven evaluation approach to develop a programme theory for a Financial Services Provider (FSP)'s induction programme. The induction programme that is implemented by the FSP is targeted at new employees and aims to improve their knowledge and skill and in the long term to retain these new employees.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Widespread adoption of mobile phone-based innovative interventions hinge on clear guidelines and standards being established on how such programmes should be designed and implemented to promote high impact levels. This report is a formative evaluation of RedChatZone, a pilot instant messaging-based programme implemented in 2009 to provide an HIV and AIDS helpline via Mxit, an instant messaging platform.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation reports on an outcome evaluation of the Student Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO) Saturday Schools Programme. This is a professionally-run catch-up educational programme that engages two hundred Grade 12 Cape Town based students. Broadly, the goal of the programme is to provide learners with quality teaching with a view to increase their chances for acceptance into university education. According to the literature, there remain some inconsistencies in the effectiveness of catch-up programmes across various contexts and subject areas. Some proponents of catch-up education programmes continue to assert that such programmes have positive effects for underprepared pre-university students. However, some other researchers maintain opposing views. Additional evidence is thus required to unlock further the value of these programmes, as the need for their existence is well warranted within the realm of pre- and post- secondary school education. To evaluate the SHAWCO Saturday School Programme, a single-group, pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design was used. The evaluation used both the 2010 and 2011 cohorts of high school learners who came from 36 secondary schools located within underprivileged communities in Cape Town. Secondary data were obtained from the SHAWCO programme managers who use a nonprobability criterion sampling technique to select learners onto the programme based on a predetermined criterion (performance on two standardised academic potential tests). The selection criterion is such that only the first 200 high-performing learners get selected into the SHAWCO programme.