Evaluation Archives - EVALUATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

Learning from China’s Transformation, Part 5. Directed Improvisation.

May 28, 2020 Zenda Ofir 3

**8 min read** This series of blog posts highlights lessons from one of the greatest transformative development success stories ever. It is also an extraordinary example of the deliberate application of complex adaptive systems concepts in political-economic or transformative development. ... Read more »

Guest post: Learning from Failure. Lessons for Evaluators and Organisations

November 16, 2019 Ahmed Aboubacrine 12

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 evaluation conferences and I always appreciated both ... Read more »

Snippet: Ten tips to start shifting to systems-informed evaluation

November 13, 2019 Zenda Ofir 1

**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 professionals to start integrating (complex) systems thinking ... Read more »

Learning from China’s transformation. Part 4 – Dominant narratives, alternative perspectives

May 12, 2019 Zenda Ofir 0

**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 frameworks, models, worldviews, perspectives. This notion is ... Read more »

Learning from China’s transformation. Part 3 – Seeing through others’ eyes

May 9, 2019 Zenda Ofir 1

**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 population should vote the government out of ... Read more »

Learning from China’s transformation. Part 2 – Why NOT China? Towards an ‘ecological civilization’.

April 16, 2019 Zenda Ofir 1

**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 and also the third post in this ... Read more »

Learning from China’s transformation. Part 1 – Why China?

April 14, 2019 Zenda Ofir 5

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 time. For the first time in history ... Read more »

Guest Post – The Efficiency Criterion. Can we make better use of it?

April 12, 2019 Michaela Raab & Jasmin Rocha 0

**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 explained in her widely discussed blog series, ... Read more »