What? Evaluation is not popular? We know that evaluation can be very valuable. We continue to emphasise its role in “decision-making”, “improving interventions”, “accountability”, “knowledge generation”, “planning”, “budgeting”, “advocacy” – and for “learning” about all of these. Yet …
We need to get much better at “selling” evaluation (the “E” in “M&E”). This is important especially in the Global South, where evaluation may be particularly valuable in helping those with little hope for a better life. Perhaps …
I believe that evaluation is a beautiful practice. Of course, I base this assessment on my own definition and sense of beauty. The nature of “beauty” has been the focus of many philosophical discourses over millennia. You may want to challenge such an assessment of our profession and practice (let us set aside for the moment the notion of evaluation as a transdiscipline), and the criteria on which I have based my assessment. You may want to use another adjective – perhaps “useful”, or “noble”.