AES

This blog is the fourth in our series about un-boxing evaluation – the theme of aes19 in Sydney, Australia. The series is designed to generate a global discussion of the theme ‘un-boxing evaluation’ and what that means for our profession and practice. In this post, Alicia McCoy (Head of Research and Evaluation at Beyond Blue) discusses her own experiences in 'un-boxing' evaluation by challenging her assumptions about what evaluation 'is', and how the NGO sector can benefit from this un-boxing.

This guest blog by Jade Maloney is the first in a series about un-boxing evaluation – the theme of aes19 in Sydney, Australia. The series is designed to generate a global discussion of the theme ‘un-boxing evaluation’ and what that means for our profession and practice. Jade Maloney is co-convenor of aes19. She is also a Partner at ARTD Consultants, specialising in design and evaluation with people with disability and in the disability sector.  

In this guest blog, Fran Demetriou (Lirata Consulting and volunteer M&E advisor for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Mentoring Program​) shares her reflections from the recent Australasian Evaluation Society (AES)'s 2018 conference, held in Launceston - in particular, what are some of the lessons a young and emerging evaluator might take away from the event?

In part 1 of this two-part blog series, Greet Peersman and Patricia Rogers introduce the ‘Pathways to advance professionalisation within the context of the AES’ project and report. They explore the four pathways identified in the report: 1) Ad hoc, disconnected activities; 2) Focused, connected and strategic activities; 3) Voluntary credentialing of evaluators; and 4) Regulated and licensed profession, and discuss their recommendation that the Australasian Evaluation Society follow a pathway of focused, connected and strategic activities, with a view to considering a voluntary credentialing process down the track.

In the previous blog in this series, Greet Peersman and Patricia Rogers introduced the ‘Pathways to advance professionalisation within the context of the AES’ project and report. A major feature of this report is the exploration of 41 activities and approaches that can be used to advance the professionalisation of monitoring and evaluation, and the conclusion of this two-part series looks at these approaches in more detail. We believe these activities are likely to be of considerable interest to others who are undertaking or planning evaluation capacity strengthening activities and we encourage you to share your feedback and thoughts on these activities at the end of this blog.