Footprint Evaluation
Contributing partner(s)
The Footprint Evaluation is a co-creation and research initiative, originally hosted by BetterEvaluation and supported by the Global Evaluation Initiative.
It is grounded in the premise that all evaluations should include consideration of environmental sustainability, even when this is not a stated goal of the intervention. This is so that decision-making can take into account the potential and actual impacts of planned interventions (projects, programs, policies) on the environment.
Learning how to evaluate the potential or actual footprint of an intervention
The Footprint Evaluation Initiative has three main learning questions:
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How can an evaluation effectively address natural systems/environmental sustainability?
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What hinders or helps this? What are particular challenges and opportunities?
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What is needed so all evaluations adequately address environmental sustainability? What are systemic approaches to overcoming hindering factors and amplifying helping factors?
Collaborating to create knowledge
Footprint Evaluation uses a co-creation approach for building and sharing knowledge about better evaluation practice. Instead of simply building knowledge (or producing a guide) and then training people to follow the procedures, Footprint Evaluation's work involves working with and reflecting on innovative practice with individuals and organisations, as well as supporting peer learning for adaptation and translation to new settings. There are two main channels for this co-creation:
Thought Partner Panel
The Footprint Evaluation Thought Partner Panel is a small, invited group of individuals who are providing advice and feedback to the Footprint Core Team on the issues and challenges to be considered, useful resources and events to curate, and how to shape the knowledge products from the project.
Footprint Evaluation Community
The wider Footprint Evaluation Community is made up of invited and self-selected Footprint enthusiasts from the wider evaluation, natural sciences and sustainability communities who are interested in learning from and contributing to the Footprint project. Members of the Footprint Community can receive a Footprint Newsletter, receive access to a private discussion group, and are encouraged to share and amplify the Footprint Evaluation learnings in their wider communities. The Footprint Community are kept up to date with new developments and outputs in the Footprint Evaluation Initiative and invited to share their thoughts, experiences, additional resources.
Where Footprint Evaluation sits in the evaluation ecosystem
Footprint evaluation complements other cross-cutting initiatives in evaluation which address related issues – including Blue Marble Evaluation, which focuses on evaluating global systems change initiatives, and Transforming Evaluation, which looks at a range of ways evaluation needs to be transformed to support the transformations needed to reach SDGs.
Footprint evaluation can also leverage and connect with other work being done in the environmental evaluation space, such as the Environmental Social Governance indicators in impact investing.
Footprint Evaluation resources and outputs
Thematic area
Guides
Case studies
Method pages
Webinars
Blogs
Ways to get involved
- Join the Footprint Evaluation Community
Sign up to join Footprint Evaluation's online discussion group and connect with others interested in embedding environmental sustainability in evaluation.