Exercises and resources: Why work in evaluation

Explore how evaluators think by trying out exercises that guide you through evaluating your recent decisions and discovering how evaluation aligns with your interests—complete with additional resources for deeper learning.

Exercises

Illustration of arms writing in a notebook with a cup of coffee and pair of glasses on the table

Try it out: Evaluate a recent choice you made!

Think of a recent situation where you had to make a choice such as which smartphone to buy, choosing a restaurant for dinner, or deciding whether to accept a job offer.
What things did you think about or consider when making this choice?
Describe how you found information for each of these things. How did you decide whether the information was trustworthy?
To what extent did your choice meet your expectations?

Congratulations! You have gone through the process of evaluating your choice! Now you have an idea of the type of questions evaluators explore on their day-to-day work!

How does evaluation align with your interests?

What is the local or global challenge that is most important to you?
What new or existing ideas could help solve this challenge?
What information is needed to understand if these ideas work?
What other questions could we answer to be more successful at addressing this challenge?

Bonus step! Take a few minutes to explore content related to the challenge that you selected and evaluated. Use search terms like “evaluation”, “report”, “practice” and the name of your challenge. Chances are, there are evaluations already trying to answer some of the questions you came up with!

Resources

Turin Agenda - 2022 National Evaluation Capacities conference

The Turin Agenda is a commitment presented by over 300 participants from more than 100 countries at the 2022 National Evaluation Capacities Conference held in Turin, Italy from October 25-28.
The Sustainable Development Goals
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
How evaluation has changed the world
This article from Eval Academy looks at a few ways that evaluation has helped to change the world.
How can evaluation change the world? Empowering Young and Emerging Evaluators (YEEs) to contribute to transformational change (Webinar)

In this gLOCAL event, we explore the role of evaluation in transforming the world and the potential of YEEs to contribute to this transformation.
EvalIndigenous
The mission of EvalIndigenous is to ensure that global and national evaluation systems and policies recognise and support Indigenous aspirations and facilitate increased understanding of, support for the implementation of culturally responsive Indigenous evaluation practices.
Expanding the Bench™ Week: Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: What is it and Why is it Important?
In this AEA365 blog, Karla Mendez and Alina Taniuchi provide an overview of culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE).
Evaluación participativa

EvalParticipativa is the Community of Practice and Learning in Participatory Evaluation for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Culturally responsive, Indigenous, and equitable evaluation resource list

This document is a "living" list (not exhaustive) of resources for Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE), Culturally Responsive Indigenous Evaluation (CRIE), and Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE).
Believe in better (PDF)
This working paper discusses young people’s inclusion in national follow up, review and accountability processes of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Eval4Action
The Eval4Action campaign, seeks to promote widespread recognition on evaluation being critical to, and a key accelerator for achieving the Global Goals.