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The politics of evaluation

Learning goals

In the course, we shall consider why and how evaluation is in itself a political activity and consequently, how «politics» can play an important part in influencing the evaluation process.

Content

Many organisations today have developed and put into place an evaluation system to guide the conduct and commissioning of evaluations. But too often, the subtleties of politics and their influence during the evaluation process are either not recognised or ignored. In this course, we shall consider why and how evaluation is in itself a political activity and consequently, how «politics» can play an important part in influencing the evaluation process. The course will help participants to identify different aspects of political influence as and when they occur during the various stages of evaluation conduct; more importantly, we shall consider how these can be managed. The course will draw on practical examples, using role play and group study to examine what is at stake and what options are available to minimise the risks.

Areas of expertise
  • Organisational and subject knowledge
  • Social and self-management skills/personal and social abilities
  • Other
Implementing institution/s or person/s (incl. short description)

Centre for Continuing Education ZUW at Berne Universtiy

Lecturer: Dr. Marlène Läubli Loud

Target groups

- Evaluators conducting evaluations for NGOs;

- NGO managers responsible for managing an evaluation contract with an external evaluator(s);

- Internal evaluators;

- Evaluation commissioners.

Other Information