Category Archives: Appropriate criteria and standards

The Friday Funny – successful hearing aid

This week’s Friday Funny (thanks to businessballs.com) reminds us about the need to check what others might call a successful outcome.       An old lady had a hearing-aid fitted, hidden underneath her hair. A week later she returned … Continue reading

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Challenges in evaluation – Call for nominations

What are the big, enduring challenges in evaluation? Where are we making progress? The ‘BetterEvaluation’ project has announced a Request for Challenges (RfC), with a particular emphasis in this round on evaluation in the areas of Capacity Development, Climate Change … Continue reading

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Alpine whaling? – Interesting developments in evidence-based policy, episode 2

While Japan has ‘scientific whaling’, Australia might be beginning a phase of ‘scientific alpine grazing’, reversing a policy of removing cattle from summer grazing in alpine national park in the name of research. (Thanks to a number of GenuineEvaluation readers … Continue reading

Posted in Adequate scope, Appropriate criteria and standards, Appropriate inference, Appropriate measurement, Appropriate reporting, Commissioning evaluation, Evaluation team composition, Evaluative questions & answers, The client's role, Use of evaluation, Values-based | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Valuing processes and distribution of costs and benefits as well as outcomes

As part of our exploration of the need for making explicit the values in evaluation, let’s be clear that this is not just about what outcomes are valued. Sometimes we are not just interested in whether we’ve reached a destination, … Continue reading

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Friday Funny – community engagement and evidence-based policy

Policy that is developed in response to clearly identified needs and through careful processes of community engagement – while being feasible in an adversarial political system and short timeframes?  Time for the Hollowmen to show us how it can be … Continue reading

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