Here I blog about what catches my attention, challenges me, or simply seems worth thinking about.
Sometimes as citizen of the Global South, often about Africa and China in particular. Sometimes as global citizen who cares about the world and all in it — from local to global level.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
How twisted narratives and simplistic measures can destroy a major effort to do good. This post examines what the backlash against ESG and ‘woke’ culture reveals about the dangers of poor measurement, ideological capture, and evaluation’s role in defending evidence-based progress
Evaluation professionals increasingly work where evaluation and transformation meet – yet few truly navigate this space. This post introduces the evaluation-transformation nexus - evaluation OF, FOR, AS and In transformation - and its use when working on complex change.
Despite the polycrisis, this is also a time to celebrate. Nine reasons for genuine hope – from shifting power dynamics to regenerative movements – and why evaluation professionals and change-makers should seize this exceptional moment.
From broken multilateralism to rising authoritarianism, there are powerful reasons for outrage in our hyperconnected world. But anger alone will not serve us. This post names seven structural failures demanding our attention — and argues for channelling outrage into purposeful action.
"I am going to analyse the data with statistics". "I am going to apply statistical thinking to my data". "I am going to use logistic regression to analyse my data". The first statement is true but useful only to point at a realm of
