I connected with Daniel in 2019 when I was given access to a draft of the GIZ paper he discusses here. I found it more insightful than most - and important. A single intervention is seldom sufficient for systems transformation, but we know an intervention can be designed and implemented in
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
A dispassionate observer of Planet Earth from far away could well be pleased with this global crisis faced by all of humanity. The suffering of those hardest hit, in particular those individuals and societies already vulnerable or fragile, makes it hard for us who are part of it to think
Do you agree with the following five observations? If so, the time is right for evaluation professionals to align. By 'align' I do not mean coordination or doing away with healthy competition. I refer to sharing some broad goals as evaluation professionals who wish to contribute to the
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
Umberto Eco, in the opening pages to his book The Infinity of Lists provides evaluators with a ticklish challenge: stability supports the definitions of a finite form of list, while instability requires a reforming of an idea with the recognition that the list of its attributes is likely to contain
