Panel Discussion on Equity and Transformation: Evaluation in Challenging Times

Evaluation stares at new challenges in the rapidly changing milieu. It is all the more relevant now to keep the larger questions of ‘equity’ and ‘transformation’ in focus while we deal with evaluation in the challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the challenges facing evaluations in the ‘new normal’ times. Whilst innovations and partnerships in evaluations are critical to address the complex socio-economic issues, the restrictions and the emergence of virtual mode imposed by the pandemic have challenged the entire process of evaluations in a different milieu. In one of the most populous regions of the world with various social cleavages such as caste, class, gender, and ethnicity, it is imperative to have innovative evaluation approaches that address the challenges in the times of crises to enable us to understand how various population groups react to evaluations, and how they might be effectively engaged in difficult times, particularly as pandemics prevent or restrict community interactions.

Notwithstanding the pandemic (or other crises), the evolving knowledge and experiences are important to improve the ability to adapt the commissioners, rights holders and duty bearers to be effectively engaged in the processes of evaluation. We continue to struggle to make our evaluations accessible and usable to make decisions, and to ensure genuine participation of all stakeholders to make use of evaluations for better performance. We continue to explore the role of local wisdom in evaluation practice and how it could address people’s contextual and cultural realities.

The paper will also highlight

1. Evaluations in the time of crises [challenges in evaluations and methods needed in times of crisis; how do we adapt ourselves to have credible evaluations in times of crises?]
2. Evaluation for transformative change [what is possible, and how do we best do it?]
3. Fostering governance, accountability, credibility and transparency [credible and transparent evaluations; observance of ethical norms relevant to different pluralistic cultural environments]
4. Evaluation of public policies; [what are the challenges and what experiences including novel methods can be shared on successful public policy evaluations]
5. Gender, equity and inclusivity [Ensuring good quality, equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluations and their use in decision-making]