Effective evaluation must address enabling environments by developing psychologically safe spaces - IOE
Rimini, 27 September 2024 – “Evaluators must have the courage to speak truth to power in a manner that is full of empathy. Sometimes, we talk like professors, almost with a certain arrogance, as if we knew it all. The truth is that we have one, albeit important perspectives, and need to recognize that evaluator humility knowing the limits will make us more effective”, underscored Dr Indran A. Naidoo, Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) during a panel discussion at the 15th European Evaluation Biennial Conference, in Rimini, on 25 September 2024.
The European Evaluation Society (EES) organized the conference, which took place from the 23rd to the 27th of September 2024, under the theme ‘Better Together 2024: Collaborative Thought and Action for Better Evaluation’. The event explored how collaboration can lead to more effective and transformative evaluation and social change, in response to the state of polycrisis that the world is facing. To do so, it brought together perspectives of commissioners, evaluators and evaluation users to understand linkages and experiences.
Over 950 participants joined the event, which was a big success with 430 presenters and 240 sessions. These included 2 keynotes, 45 paper sessions, 70 panels, 14 "Meet the Evaluator" sessions, 46 workshops, 29 fishbowls, 19 sparkling discussions, 3 poster sessions and 3 book sessions.
A strong delegation of IOE staff attended the conference, acting as panellists and co-presenters in nine different sessions during the three main days of the event. In addition to Dr Naidoo, the line-up of IOE presenters and discussants featured Dr Johanna Pennarz, Lead Evaluation Officer; Dr S. Nanthikesan, former Lead Evaluation Officer; Dr Monica Lomeña-Gelis, Senior Evaluation Officer; Dr Alexander Voccia, Senior Evaluation Communication & Knowledge Management Specialist; Jeanette Cooke, Evaluation Officer; and Mikal Khan, Evaluation Officer.
On the 25th of September, the Independent Evaluation Office of the New Development Bank (IEO) hosted a panel discussion, which centred around the sub-theme of ‘Collaborative Evaluation and Learning: Bridging Perspectives for Sustainable Action’. Dr Naidoo was among the panellists, which included Luciano Lavizzari, former IOE Director, and Manas Puri, Senior Professional at IEO.
“It’s a slippery road when you are doing independent evaluation and engaging. Let’s not romanticize it and believe that it’s all going to be easy and come up with joint recommendations. The reality is that you need to engage, otherwise you are in an ivory tower and become irrelevant. This means recognizing that the evaluand is not the enemy”, stated Dr Naidoo.
The panel delved into the evolving understanding of evaluation processes within the context of sustainable development. By shifting the focus towards collaborative evaluation and learning, the session harnessed the collective wisdom and action of diverse stakeholders to drive more effective and sustainable development outcomes. Specific issues addressed included how collaborative evaluation can support the achievement of the SDGs, the role of continuous learning in enhancing decision-making and driving better action towards sustainable development goals, and the challenges and obstacles faced by evaluation specialists in promoting collaborative approaches and measuring their impact.
On the same day, IOE engaged in three other sessions. Dr Nanthikesan presented during the session titled ‘Transforming Together - Building a common picture of the role of evaluation in the transformation of world needs’. The session sought to build a coalition of people with a shared commitment to ensure that evaluation makes meaningful contributions to a more equitable and sustainable future by addressing major environmental, social and economic sustainability issues in a systematic fashion.
Jeanette Cooke presented during the sessions titled ‘Targeting For Effective Development And Humanitarian Programmes’ – which showed that targeting needs to be updated, corrected, assessed and redesigned to consider local context and implementation experience -; and the session titled ‘Participatory Narrative Inquiry And Sensemaking: Working With Micro-narratives In Evaluation’, which explained the general approach of the participatory narrative inquiry and sensemaking.
The day also featured a session titled ‘Meet the Corporate Level Evaluation of Knowledge Management Practices In IFAD, during which Dr Naidoo was joined by Dr Jo Puri, IFAD Special Adviser; Dr Pennarz, Mr Khan and Dr Voccia. The session provided participants with multiple perspectives on this corporate level evaluation. Discussions touched upon what a CLE is, what is its purpose and how IOE conducts CLEs; why IFAD’s Management requested a CLE on knowledge management (KM); the CLE KM process, stakeholder engagement, findings and conclusions; and how the CLE’s insights will be packaged and shared.
On 26 September, Dr Monica Lomeña-Gelis, Senior Evaluation Officer, presented during the session titled ‘Integrating Gender Approaches and Feminist Values into Global Evaluations That Address SDG5’. The session provided three separate pieces of empirical research that demonstrate how evaluation can address gender, inclusivity, and diversity in a global evaluation context.
On 27 September, Dr Pennarz and Mr Khan presented during the session titled ‘Methods to evaluate knowledge management – experiences from IFAD, Norad and GEF‘. The session informed participants and fostered peer-to-peer exchanges on recent methodologies for the assessment of corporate level knowledge management activities and their contributions to development results, with a focus on diverse perspectives.
Dr Nanthikesan presented during the session titled ‘Can Decentralization in IFIs lead to better development results?’. The session compared the perspectives of two the World Bank and IFAD, each of which recently undertook major evaluations of their organization’s decentralization efforts.
Dr Naidoo participated in the discussions during the session titled ‘Better Together in Action: Exploring the past, present, and future of the Comparative Policy Evaluation Series. The main purpose of the session was to meet up with some of the prospective editors of upcoming books under the Series.
Founded in 1992, EES is the regional Voluntary Organization for Professional Evaluation for Europe. Its primary goal is to promote the theory, practice and utilisation of high-quality evaluation in Europe and beyond. The EES’s flagship event is the biennial conference. Since the mid-1990s, its conferences have brought together hundreds of evaluators and evaluation commissioners from Europe and abroad. The conferences have made their mark in the evaluation community, offering a unique opportunity for building evaluation capacity.
For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia, Senior Evaluation Communication & KM Specialist [here].
RESOURCES
- For more information about the 15th European Evaluation Biennial Conference, please click here.
IOE 20th ANNIVERSARY
- To access the brochure ‘More than a journey | 20 years of independence, please click here.
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