Osvaldo is one of the most knowledgeable professionals I have ever met - a veritable walking encyclopaedia of all matters related to evaluation. Over the years it has been a feast for me to meet up and occasionally work with him, among others as members of the International Evaluation Advisory Committee
"We won't get back to normal because normal was the problem." - Graffiti in Santiago, Chile It is great to see evaluators leaping into action with advice on how to adjust practice to cope with the impact of the coronavirus. This could be a transformative moment also
In my view elevator speeches that present evaluation as something done for "learning", "improving", "generating knowledge" or "being accountable" belong to the past. COVID-19 is part of humanity's footprint on Earth, part of the Anthropocene. It is going to
We are at a transformative moment in the history of humankind and of our planet. During this extraordinary time and beyond, the global evaluation community will have to hone and reposition evaluation, in close alignment with research, as a GPS that can help humanity navigate the complex, uncharted terrain that
As one of three facilitators at a recent 3-day workshop organised in Connecticut by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) on 'Assessing Systems Change', I shared the following tips to inspire evaluation professionals to start integrating (complex) systems thinking into their practice. Many already do this without even realising
One thing is certain: the proficiencies and abilities that will help us deal with the world in an era defined by the Anthropocene, the SDGs and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are quite different from those of past decades. There are many similarities between the competency frameworks that the experts in
Skill 6. Deep Generalists In order to be a good evaluation professional, it is essential to see connections. We have to be able to analyse, integrate and synthesise - what we know from past research and evaluation literature, what we derive from different sources and methods used during the evaluation, and
"Are modernity's blueprints for evaluation theory and practice exhausted?" Only now and again one finds provocative questions and insights during an evaluation conference keynote. A keynote that is Innovative. Thought-provoking. Visionary. In 2018, renowned evaluation scholar Thomas Schwandt delivered one of these rare speeches at
We live in an era of 'big data' and 'big information'. We work in an increasingly quantified world devoid of the nuance that qualitative information provides. We also live in an era of 'scanning'. We don't want to read or know detail.
A while ago Michael Quinn Patton urged us in one of our Young and Emerging Evaluator posts to share the 10 evaluation classics that inspire us most. And now we have the great phenomenon on Twitter - #SHELFIES! That special shelf of books you most often refer to in your work,
