Reciprocal Exchange Alumni Key Informant Interview

Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders: Interviews with Reciprocal Exchange Alumni

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship evaluation! The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. Department of State engaged Guidehouse to conduct an independent evaluation of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (2014 – 2018). You have been selected for an interview based on your survey responses and your participation in the Fellowship’s Reciprocal Exchange program. We are not affiliated with IREX.

The purpose of the evaluation is to review the Fellowship’s effectiveness in meeting its goals and objectives, assess the Fellowship’s impact on Alumni and other stakeholders, and determine areas for improvement and growth. Your interview responses will provide us with vital information on personal experiences with the Fellowship, and insights into how to shape the program moving forward. In this interview we will discuss three major areas: Background and Context, Impacts and Outcomes, and Program Coordination. It is anticipated that the interview will take approximately 60 minutes.

Your participation in this interview is voluntary. You may opt to withdraw from the interview at any time or choose not to answer select questions. For your awareness:

• Aggregated responses or qualitative insights (without names) from open-ended questions may be included in the final report or publications resulting from the evaluation.

• Qualitative data files will be submitted to ECA at the completion of the evaluation (without names or any contact information).

• The information you provide may be re-analyzed at a later date for a follow-up study or other purpose approved by ECA.

Your contributions are confidential and no individual names will be used in any reports or publications resulting from the evaluation unless the individual provides consent to the Evaluation Team. If you have any questions or concerns about this interview or the evaluation more broadly, please reach out to the Evaluation Team at fellowshipevaluation@guidehouse.com.

CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE

Do you consent to participate in this interview?

☐ Yes, I consent to participate in this interview

☐ No, I do not consent to participate in this interview [note: if selected, the interview will end]

Internal Notes **FOR ECA/EVALUATION TEAM USE ONLY**

Scope: The Reciprocal Exchange Alumni key informant interviews (KII) will use the survey data to gather personal anecdotes and stories from key American Reciprocal Exchange Alumni.

Structure: The Evaluation Team will identify KIIs by region and individual interest in being interviewed.

KIIs will be conducted in person where feasible. Virtual discussions will be an alternate form of communication if necessary.

Interview Instructions **FOR INTERVIEWER USE ONLY**

• Introduction: The interviewer will read the introduction and ask the key informant the “Consent to Participate” question prior to beginning the interview.

  • If the key informant declines to consent to the interview, the interviewer should thank the participant for their time and end the interview.

• Interview Questions and Style: There are nine formal interview questions below. Some of these questions have suggested follow-up questions and/or prompts. The interviewer should use their discretion to determine if the follow-up questions are relevant and if the prompts are necessary. Interviewers are encouraged to phrase questions more personally or informally.

• Incorporating Survey Responses: Interviewer will insert information from key informant’s survey responses into designated interview questions. The interviewer may need to modify these questions if the key informant did not fill out the relevant survey question, the key informant provided more than one answer to the survey question, or the key informant did not respond to the survey.

• Note: If a key informant did not respond to the survey, all questions in the questionnaire below can be made more general to capture an informant’s experience. E.g., rather than “In your survey response, you highlighted the following ways the Fellows had an impact on the local American community…”, the question becomes “Please highlight ways the Fellows had an impact on the local American community.”

Attendees

Key informant ID

Evaluation team attendees

Questions

Interview Questions
Background and Context
1	In your survey response, you noted that your Reciprocal Exchange (RE) project(s) was/were [details from RE Alum Survey, Question #4]. How did you come up with this/these project idea(s) and how did you and the Fellow develop the proposal(s)? Follow-up questions: How, and to what extent, did your project differ from your proposal?
NA	[If respondent did not take survey] Can you please a brief description of what occurred on your Reciprocal Exchange, including your project’s objectives and programming. Follow-up questions: In which country/countries did you conduct your Reciprocal Exchange project(s)? How did you meet the Mandela Washington Fellow with whom you worked with as part of the Reciprocal Exchange project? How did you and the Fellow develop the project idea? Do you still maintain contact with the Fellow with whom you collaborated? How do you maintain contact? Is the project you collaborated on still running?
Impact and Outcomes
2	You highlighted the following impacts of your project on the country/countries you visited: [details from RE Alum Survey, Question #10]. In your opinion, what is the most important impact and why? Do you think this will lead to any changes in the local communities? Why or Why not? Follow-up questions What did you learn from your participation in this project? How did participating in this project affect you, professionally and personally? What was the impact of this project on your work? In your opinion, how did this project affect the Fellow(s) you collaborated with, professionally and personally? In your opinion, how did this project affect any other RE Awardees (i.e. Americans) you collaborated with on the project? Were there any new relationships/networks formed as a result of the collaboration on this project? Did you build relationships with any of the other RE Awardees?
3	Could you describe any plans to continue or expand upon your collaboration with the Fellow(s) and/or RE Awardee(s)? Follow-up questions Could you describe any new collaborations that are a result of the previous collaboration? How are you and/or the Fellow(s) and/or RE Awardees (i.e. Americans) engaged in these efforts?
4	You highlighted the following impacts of your project on your local American community: [details from RE Alum Survey, Questions #11, 11a, and 13]. In your opinion, what is the most important impact and why? Do you think this will lead to any changes in your local community? Follow-up questions How has this affected the way you do your work in your community; in your organization; and/or with other RE Awardee(s)? Are there any groups that were more impacted than others? E.g., other colleagues, local businesses, local non-profits, etc.? If so, why?
5	In what ways, if any, did your RE project help build/ strengthen relationships between Americans and citizens of the African country/countries you worked in?
Program Coordination
6	Could you describe any successes and challenges you or the Fellow had that relate to project set-up, implementation, and after completing the project? Follow-up questions: To what extent did these successes and challenges influence your project before, during, or after implementation? In the case of challenges, how did you/or the Fellow mitigate any challenges that arose?
7	How can IREX and the Department of State improve the Reciprocal Exchange in the future? Follow-up questions: Are there ways you think the Reciprocal Exchange Awardees and/or Fellows could help improve the Reciprocal Exchange in the future? If yes, please describe.
8	Is there anything else that you would like to mention about your experiences with the Reciprocal Exchange?
9	Is there anyone either from your Institute or from the U.S. or African communities that you engaged with whom we should talk to?

OMB Control Number: 1405-XXXX Burden Estimate:  60 minutes Expiration Date: XX-XX-XXXX

PRA Statement Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including time required for searching existing data sources, gathering the necessary documentation, providing the information and/or documents required, and reviewing the final collection.  You do not have to supply this information unless this collection displays a currently valid OMB control number.  If you have comments on the accuracy of this burden estimate and/or recommendations for reducing it, please send them to: ecaevaluation@state.gov.