Thanks for your very interesting post, and for sharing your experience in grappling with this enormous challenge. I wish to share a couple of thoughts, from my role as evaluator and as a commissioner of evaluations.
In the short-term, I wonder the value that stakeholders may give to evaluations done at distance, and in the medium-term, the threat this pose to evaluation as a profession.
What is the added value of an evaluation that is done from distance? In a couple of ongoing evaluations with large field components we are facing some issues whose consequence we should not underestimate as they might reduce the credibility of the whole exercise (inability to observe first-hand changes, reliance on the evaluand to select who participates and who does not, limits to triangulation with beneficiaries and local partners, etc.) and put our teams in danger of being challenged in case they come up with negative or erroneous if not inaccurate findings.
Then, evaluation as a profession: if we are doing things from distance and without credible triangulation and bottom-up participation, what makes us different from those doing reviews or even performance audit? If we advocate for distance evaluations, and colleagues/partners realize that these can be done cheaply and in a non rigurous manner, we may have issues in the future i) selling evaluation as a distinctive and truly learning tool, and ii) getting adequate evaluation provisions/budgets.
Linked to this, the moral imperative for evaluators of not making harm. In view of all the unknowns that this pandemic is bringing, it is our duty not to put more people at risk, neither local evaluators nor beneficiaries. Trying to postpone evaluations if feasible, at least till it becomes clearer what we could safely do in the field and what we cannot, it will just be a fair and ethical thing to do.
RE: How do we adapt our evaluation approach to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Dear Nick,
Thanks for your very interesting post, and for sharing your experience in grappling with this enormous challenge. I wish to share a couple of thoughts, from my role as evaluator and as a commissioner of evaluations.
In the short-term, I wonder the value that stakeholders may give to evaluations done at distance, and in the medium-term, the threat this pose to evaluation as a profession.
What is the added value of an evaluation that is done from distance? In a couple of ongoing evaluations with large field components we are facing some issues whose consequence we should not underestimate as they might reduce the credibility of the whole exercise (inability to observe first-hand changes, reliance on the evaluand to select who participates and who does not, limits to triangulation with beneficiaries and local partners, etc.) and put our teams in danger of being challenged in case they come up with negative or erroneous if not inaccurate findings.
Then, evaluation as a profession: if we are doing things from distance and without credible triangulation and bottom-up participation, what makes us different from those doing reviews or even performance audit? If we advocate for distance evaluations, and colleagues/partners realize that these can be done cheaply and in a non rigurous manner, we may have issues in the future i) selling evaluation as a distinctive and truly learning tool, and ii) getting adequate evaluation provisions/budgets.
Linked to this, the moral imperative for evaluators of not making harm. In view of all the unknowns that this pandemic is bringing, it is our duty not to put more people at risk, neither local evaluators nor beneficiaries. Trying to postpone evaluations if feasible, at least till it becomes clearer what we could safely do in the field and what we cannot, it will just be a fair and ethical thing to do.
Best regards,
Carlos