Do you feel evaluations are a waste of time and money? I sympathise. Too often, evaluations happen just to comply with funders‘ demands. Too often, people who run programmes remember evaluation only when a project or the programme is about to end, with little time left to think of good questions and to find good evaluators. Too often, evaluations are supposed to answer 30 complex questions in 30 days. That does seem inefficient or wasteful.

But evaluation can be an excellent way to demonstrate your intervention has worked out well, or to learn from on-going or completed work.

I am committed to facilitating evaluation that fulfils its purpose.

Evaluation and learning have been central themes throughout my three decades of experience in international cooperation.

Back at my country/regional desks with UN and with large non-governmental organisations, I commissioned, managed and used evaluations… or tried to use them, even if some came with flaws. I carried out internal evaluations. I even represented the evaluand, i.e., the subject of an evaluation.

As a consultant since 2008, I have designed and carried out dozens of evaluations, solo and as a leader in diverse teams across the world. I have reviewed hundreds of evaluation reports, analysed their quality and synthetised their findings. I have carried out research and published on evaluation quality. As an advisor, I have contributed to strengthening (monitoring and) evaluation systems. I have managed evaluations on behalf of clients, and strengthened their management response. In recent years, I served on the World Food Programme’s Evaluation Methods Advisory Panel, reviewing evaluations and providing real-time methodological advice in organisation-wide evaluations.

That is why I am passionate about facilitating evaluation. 

Evaluations don’t need to be pointless. Reports don’t need to be an unpleasant or dull formality. Even small adaptations to an evaluation system, or just in the process of planning and commissioning an evaluation, make a difference.

Get in touch with me if you’d like to find out more in an online conversation!