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Evaluation as Practice

Evaluation as Practice

Evaluation is both trans-discipline and craft, shaped by context, contested by power, and demanding of learning and judgment that are increasingly challenging during a time of upheaval and uncertainty. Posts here engage with the real practice of evaluation: design choices and their assumptions and trade-offs, quality and rigour in messy settings, ethical navigation, and what it takes to do this work well when it truly matters. A Global South lens infuses the posts.
20
Aug
Arendalsuka: Democracy in 2,000 sessions, 180 venues, 5 days, 190,000 participants ...

Arendalsuka: Democracy in 2,000 sessions, 180 venues, 5 days, 190,000 participants ...

A beautiful Norwegian coastal town transforms into a giant open-air democracy festival. What Arendalsuka reveals about the power of inclusive, place-based democratic engagement – and what evaluation professionals can learn from it.
5 min read
08
Jun
Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 7. A Collective Navigation System for this time of Polycrisis

Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 7. A Collective Navigation System for this time of Polycrisis

Evaluation must become more than a technical practice – it can serve as a collective navigation system for this exceptional time in humanity’s history. Drawing on wayfinding, Indigenous wisdom and complexity thinking, this post reimagines evaluation’s purpose and potential.
8 min read
29
May
Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 6. Evaluating yesterday's world for tomorrow’s challenges?

Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 6. Evaluating yesterday's world for tomorrow’s challenges?

Why are we still evaluating yesterday’s world to plan for tomorrow’s challenges? Evaluation after evaluation describes what happened in the past without grappling with what is emerging. This post argues for a fundamental reorientation of evaluation practice.
15 min read
25
May
Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 5. The Liminal space of Not-Yet Futures

Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 5. The Liminal space of Not-Yet Futures

We live in a liminal space, suspended between what was and what is becoming. Like a cocoon where the old dissolves before the new takes shape, this in-between space is where the transformations we need become possible. What does this mean for evaluation?
3 min read
15
May
Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 4. It has always been political

Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 4. It has always been political

Evaluation has never been neutral. Throughout history, the act of assessing has served as both instrument of control and catalyst for justice. This post examines how power, politics and ideology have always shaped what gets evaluated, by whom, and for what purpose.
4 min read
13
May
Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 3. The tributaries that make up our field

Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 3. The tributaries that make up our field

Evaluation does not flow from a single source. Like a river fed by countless tributaries, it draws from government accountability, Indigenous wisdom, professional practice, academic research, digital innovation and activist movements.
5 min read
06
May
Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 2. How did we get here?

Evaluation’s Journey towards the Future, Part 2. How did we get here?

From ancient aquifers to modern canals: how evaluation evolved from intuitive human practice into a structured profession. Tracing the currents that carried evaluative thinking from millennia-old traditions into the formalised field we know today.
7 min read
10
Apr
Evaluation’s Journey towards the future, Part 1: Ancient tributaries

Evaluation’s Journey towards the future, Part 1: Ancient tributaries

As we chart evaluation’s future, its earliest beginnings continue to shape the field. From ancient Egypt’s Nile governance to China’s imperial examinations, from Indigenous knowledge systems to Athenian civic audits – a vivid journey through five millennia of evaluative practice.
9 min read
12
Nov
Guest post. Drawing from Complexity Science to do Evaluation: Knowledge to Drive Operational Decisions

Guest post. Drawing from Complexity Science to do Evaluation: Knowledge to Drive Operational Decisions

"I am going to analyse the data with statistics". "I am going to apply statistical thinking to
3 min read
01
Sep
The Power(lessness) of Evaluation: The case of Afghanistan

The Power(lessness) of Evaluation: The case of Afghanistan

Thanks to more than 60 evaluation reports over 13 years by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), we
8 min read