aes19 International Evaluation Conference

Mathea Roorda (Allen  + Clarke)

Values are fundamental to evaluation as they provide the basis against which evaluative judgments are made. Yet evaluators often overlook them. In this skill building session, participants will be introduced to a framework intended to unbox dimensions of value for publicly-funded programs. As the overall conference theme states: evaluation can be gift - it has the potential to strengthen people's lives. Evaluation also comes with responsibilities, one of which is that the evaluator's judgments need to be based on all relevant values, not just those of the evaluation commissioner. The framework draws on two approaches to valuing, one of which comes from a branch of philosophy that is focused on value (how we understand concepts such as good and bad); the second on describing value as understood by different program stakeholders. We will step through the framework's components and then discuss its applicability for evaluation practice. A handbook for using the framework will be made available to participants.