Evaluation Roundup - May 2020
Welcome to our monthly roundup of new and noteworthy evaluation news and resources – here is the latest.
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New and Noteworthy — Reads
One-Way Street of Knowledge Production and Sharing in The Evaluation Field
With the protests that are unfolding in Minneapolis, and now the rest of the world, it is worth reading (or re-reading) Khalil Bitar’s blog post from May 11. In the post he talks about how the evaluation community is not immune to prejudice, discrimination and racism, and is in fact practicing it by primarily producing and sharing evaluation knowledge by white men from the Global North. As he says, the evaluation community is not immune to racism and has an ethical responsibility to be more mindful, inclusive and open:
“The evaluation field should be among the leading fields in combating these convictions and practices. It is time for the field to systematically embrace and nourish views, thoughts, and experiences that have long been neglected.”
Good Practices for Evaluation During COVID-19
Recently OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) and the Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP jointly prepared a guidance document that captures good practices for evaluations during COVID-19. In the document they provide insights, suggestions and practical examples for how to adapt evaluation work. These include:
Do no harm,
Take care of staff,
Re-think evaluation plans,
Adapt evaluation methods and approaches,
Use information technologies and remote data solutions,
Build on and support local capacities and
Prepare for future evaluations.
Zenda Ofir – Transforming Evaluations Part 5. COVID-Safe, COVID-Ready and COVID-Informed Evaluation
The guidance document produced by the OECD/DAC and UNDP-IEO (referenced above) is a good illustration of a COVID-Safe evaluation – it focuses on details of what to do and how to adjust our evaluations in a crisis situation. In this blog post, @ZendaOfir also explores COVID-Ready and COVID-Informed evaluation. She goes on to explain that many believe that we might have to live with COVID if a vaccine or cure is not found. Therefore, COVID-Ready evaluation focuses on what should be evaluated in the event of an ongoing crisis that will help people and societies cope. Yet, Ofir goes on to say that COVID-Ready evaluation is not enough since it focuses on recovery and preparedness “more or less within the status quo and in the short to medium term.” COVID-Informed evaluation, she says, has a long-term perspective that focuses on preparing humanity for sustainable development and resilient societies.
Zenda Ofir – A Beautiful Practice for our time
Looking for some more insights by @ZendaOfir? She wrote a blog post that seemed to create a bit of chatter on Twitter. Some agreed with @ZendaOfir and her thoughts on if/how evaluation contributes to beauty in this world, while others did not. In this post, Zenda Ofir offers that “evaluation as practice is intrinsically beautiful – but how it is practiced, frequently not.” She goes on to outline seven reasons for why she considers evaluation as something “beautiful”. What do you think? Do you agree?
New and Noteworthy — Tools
Quick reference guides evaluators can’t live without
Kudos to Kelly Robertson from EvaluATE for pulling together so many checklists, guides and other resources. These are organized according to evaluation activity and can be found here on EvaluATE’s website. I have to say, the Likert-Type Scale Response Anchors developed by Vagias and Wade is one I reference frequently!
New and Noteworthy — Courses, Events and Webinars
June 2020
gLOCAL Evaluation Week (June 1- 5, 2020) – Online, free events
Host: Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results
Rewiring Evaluation Approaches at the Intersection of Data Science and Evaluation – Webinar
Host: World Bank - Independent Evaluation Group
Feminist Evaluation: Not your standard gender-responsive approach! – Online Course
Instructor: Donna Podems (@DonnaPodems)
Transformative Mixed-Methods Evaluation – Online Course
July 2020
We have a free guide:
Applying the JCSEE Evaluation Standards in Practice
Whether you’ve read The Program Evaluation Standards cover to cover or not, you may be wondering how to ensure you’re applying them to your evaluation practice. This free digital download will give you the reflective prompts you need to ensure your next evaluation project incorporates all 30 Standards.