Conference Strand

Aspects

Key Questions & Challenges

Valuing

Criteria and standards for evaluating

• outcomes
• processes
• distribution of costs and benefits

• Whose values should be used for evaluation?
• How should these be identified?
• How should differing values be addressed?

Describing

Gathering evidence about:

• initial conditions
• resources used
• activities undertaken
• short-term and long-term results

• How can we develop credible short-term indicators of long-term change?
• How can we retrospectively measure change over time?
• How can we succinctly capture and communicate the richness of lived experience?

Attributing

• Analysing the causal contribution of interventions to the observed outcomes

• How do we account for the contribution of other interventions and external factors?

Using and Influencing

• Factors affecting use and influence of evaluation
• The impact of the process of evaluation
• Strategies for increasing appropriate use and influence of evaluation
• Identifying and applying lessons learned and best practice
• Approaches to evidence-based policy and practice

• How can evaluators facilitate the use and influence of evaluation findings?
• What can we learn from implementation of evaluation findings?

Managing

• Effective management of external evaluations – including developing tenders, selecting consultants
• Project management challenges and techniques for evaluators
• Internal evaluative activity and the learning organisation
• Developing evaluation frameworks, strategies and guidelines within and across organisations
• Quality control in evaluation – accreditation, certification, peer review and meta-evaluation.

• How best can evaluation be managed and coordinated?
• What are the risks of evaluation and how can they be addressed?
• What skills are needed to manage evaluation?