Our principles

Do no harm

Make informed choices about evaluation methods and processes to suit the particular situation.
Identify benefits and risks in the methods and processes available - especially for those left behind or excluded.
Learn from experiences in your own organisation and sector, and from others currently and in the past.
Review quality and impact of evaluation - especially for those left behind or excluded - in a systematic manner, and take action to improve.

Embed evaluative thinking and evidence throughout planning and implementation, not only on completion of a project.
Act strategically to make decisions about where to focus evaluation efforts.
Address equity issues in every step of the evaluation process.

Curate existing knowledge about the full range of evaluation methods and processes, not advocating for any one method or process.
Support decision-making. Co-create new knowledge about which methods and processes suit particular situations and how to use them well.
Provide tools for understanding equity implications of decisions at each stage of evaluation.
Look across boundaries. Draw on learnings from different organisations, sectors and disciplines, as well as regions, languages, knowledges and experiences.
Support application and adaption of new knowledge to people's own context and document emerging learnings.
Start from local needs and priorities and design learning and resources around these.
Learn about, respect and work appropriately within the local culture.
Identify and build on existing knowledge and strengths.
Design for learning over time rather than one-off events so that learners are supported over a period of time.
Establish true partnerships for mutual learning.