 I am a South African scientist and full-time international evaluator. Although I work across the world, I concentrate on Africa and Asia, and deeply care about the development challenges facing the Global South. This blog is aimed at those of us who want to stay up to date with, and debate current issues and trends in evaluation across the world. I tend to focus on transformative change, development as complex adaptive system, and the evolution of societies and ecosystems in harmony with one another, and within planetary boundaries. Read More > |
Topics
 Culture in evaluation |
 Development, SDGs & Transformation |
 Research evaluation |
 Methodologies & Innovations |
 Evaluation as profession and practice |
 Top Tips for Young and Emerging Evaluators |
Latest Posts
Guest post: Learning from Failure. Lessons for Evaluators and Organisations
It is a pleasure to have Ahmed Aboubacrine as guest blogger on the interesting and pertinent issue of how to think about ‘failure’ from different perspectives. Our paths have crossed many times at ...
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Snippet: Ten tips to start shifting to systems-informed evaluation
**3 min read** 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 ...
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Ten essential competencies for “post-normal” evaluation
**8 min read** “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. ...
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Guest Post – The etcetera of transformative evaluation
With the hiatus in my posts due to a fiendishly busy schedule, I am pleased to have this pertinent guest post by old friends – evaluation luminary Donna Mertens and Stephen Porter who ...
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Learning from China’s transformation. Part 4 – Dominant narratives, alternative perspectives
**10 min read** We need fresh narratives about how the world works, and why, and what to do to solve its complex problems. We need ‘Two-eyed Seeing’. We need Nuance. Pluralism. Diversity. Alternative ...
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Learning from China’s transformation. Part 3 – Seeing through others’ eyes
**5 min read** Some years ago I was on an evaluation assignment in the Mekong region, dealing with labour issues. In an interview in a (Western) embassy the diplomat vehemently argued that the ...
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Learning from China’s transformation. Part 2 – Why NOT China? Towards an ‘ecological civilization’.
**10 min read** As evaluators we cannot afford to get caught up in narratives – usually devoid of nuance – that aim to create negative mental models of a certain society. This second ...
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Learning from China’s transformation. Part 1 – Why China?
Evaluators have an imperative to learn from success. Today we are fortunate: Those of us working in development or evaluation can learn from one of the greatest transformational development success stories of all ...
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Guest Post – The Efficiency Criterion. Can we make better use of it?
**6 min read** This guest post was written by Michaela Raab and Jasmin Rocha, both based in Berlin, Germany. The OECD/DAC criteria have been under review and debate since 2018. As Zenda Ofir ...
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Leslie Goodyear’s Top Tips for YEEs
**4 min read** I met Leslie more than a decade ago when we served together on the Board of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). We had so much fun together with a great ...
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