About us | FIFE – Friedensau Institute For Evaluation

About us

The institute

The Friedensau Institute for Evaluation (FIFE) is an interdisciplinary, self-governing central scientific institution of Friedensau Adventist University, Germany.

FIFE is an interdisciplinary scientific research and consulting institute.We actively combine academic research and professional practice in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

We research and develop evaluation methods and models, carry out evaluations and contribute to networking and knowledge transfer for NGOs, philanthropic groups and foundations, social support businesses, corporate bodies, governments and UN agencies.

Since 2010, we have been conducting evaluations in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian aid, advising public and private organizations on the impacts of interventions, development of monitoring systems, and providing academic and non-academic training and capacity building for organizations, students and professionals.

The institute works in close collaboration with the Master of Arts in International Social Science (MAISS) study program at Friedensau Adventist University

Vision

To see a world in which development and humanitarian interventions make the best impact for all. Evaluations and research at FIFE promote improved effectiveness, leaning, and sustainability of development cooperation and humanitarian interventions.

Mission

FIFE exists to support organizations to maximize the impacts of their interventions. We passionately work with our clients to ensure quality evaluations and technical supports on project/program planning and management and MEAL systems. We use scientific-based analysis for pre-project implementation research, evaluations, and capacity development and training. We tailor our work to meet clients needs using best industry standards and state of the art research models and frameworks. We maintain a long and trusted relationship with our clients. Our worldwide network team of experts places us in a unique position at meeting the needs of our clients.

Guiding principles

We strive for interdisciplinary and scientific-based methods in all our work. FIFE’s evaluations and research benefits from methodological, regional, and local context and thematic expertise of our network of professionals and academics. We impart our clients and partners with objective and impartial tailor-made configurations in a participatory manner while at the same time maintaining professional distance and independence. Our team is equipped with personal and organizational communication and negation skills, which makes it possible for us to facilitate individual and organizational learning for our clients and ourselves.

Our work at FIFE is guided by principles which we live by and continuously improve in our daily activities

INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC-BASED from evaluations, research, and consultations ensure that we combine the state of the art methodological theories and tools. Our assessment and fundamental research contributes to a stimulating current industry-wide debate from which our projects and clients benefit greatly.

NEEDS ORIENTED in developing our activities and carrying out evaluations. We create, choose, and base our evaluation designs on your questions and strategic needs to ensure they are relevant, useful, and enable learning. We avoid template-based work and focus on the best individual evaluation designs for our clients.

C OMPREHENSIVE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ensures that we combine qualitative and quantitative methods for both data collection and analysis. We do so to cover every aspect of the project or program to ensure the quality of our research. With a team of seasoned researchers, we carefully select methods and tools with the highest result delivery for data collection, analysis, and reporting well to inform you about every aspect of your intervention. We develop and choose working methods and approaches that are environmentally and climate-friendly

QUALITY-FOCUSSED activities mean robust compliance with our internal, national, and internationally recognized evaluation and research standards. We hold on to our ethics and will never compromise on them

PARTNERSHIP is the hallmark of our work. We promote, develop, and build a trust-based collaboration in the spirit of friendship and respect, which is mutually beneficial.

MONITORING EVALUATION ACCOUNTABILITY AND LEARNING (MEAL) keeps us on our toes as we strive to improve our services and activities. We will never support and advice on MEAL systems without committing to them. So we learn from our mistakes and share what we learn. We learn from others and take responsibility for our actions as we follow due diligence, monitor, and evaluate.

PARTICIPATORY APPROACH ensures that all relevant parties and stakeholders are involved in all phases of the evaluation process. We value our clients and all stakeholders dearly and see their participation key to all our activities. Abiding by this principle means we also disseminate our result by communicating clearly to promote learning for all stakeholders.

RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH ensures that our conceptual and practical frameworks are normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. We carefully analyse inequalities which lie at the heart of development problems, points out and redress discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power that impede development progress in our evaluations and research. More so, we are committed to a “Do No Harm” approach with our projects and clients.

FIFE guiding principles

Structure & History

Structure

History

The Friedensau Institute for Evaluation was established at Friedensau Adventist University in 2010 by Prof. Horst Rolly. Since then, numerous evaluation studies in development cooperation, social work and humanitarian aid have been conducted in various countries.

The institute originated due to the necessity for a science-based effectiveness analysis and efficiency control of the practice of development cooperation, humanitarian aid, and philanthropically-based projects arising from diverse theoretical models, paradigms, and working approaches.

Past evaluations and contracted research include: Earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation projects (Haiti, India); child-care centres (Moldovia); centres for the rehabilitation of endangered youth (Thailand); foster homes for vulnerable children (Haiti); school qualification projects for the rehabilitation of child labourers (India); food security (Mongolia); humanitarian aid to refugees (Greece); integration projects for refugees (Germany).

In 2020, Dr. Kwaku Arhin-Sam was appointed as the first director of the institute. Subsequently, the name of the institute was changed to Friedensau Institute for Evaluation (FIFE) as part of restructuring the institute. The restructuring was necessitated by the desire to strengthen the scientific research and professional engagements of the institute under the directorship of Dr. Kwaku Arhin-Sam.

Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Horst F. Rolly | Founder

the director

Dr. Kwaku Arhin-Sam

Director / Senior Consultant