Evaluations must consider values in order to remain relevant - 39th INTEVAL annual meeting

Evaluations must consider values in order to remain relevant - 39th INTEVAL annual meeting

Evaluations which neglect to consider values are at risk of becoming irrelevant and unused. Human values play a crucial role in shaping individuals’ perspectives, motivations and judgments. Evaluations that fail to account for these values may overlook important factors that influence human behaviour and decision making, potentially leading to an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of the evaluand. Stemming from these considerations, the International Research Group for Policy and Program Evaluation (INTEVAL) endorsed the publishing of a new book on value-based evaluation, during its 39th annual meeting.

The 39th INTEVAL annual meeting took place in The Hague, from 27 to 29 May 2024. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the event, which brought together a multidisciplinary constellation of world-renown expert evaluation leaders and distinguished authors. Discussions focused on finished books, current projects, new work and challenges. Dr Indran A. Naidoo, Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE), participated in the event, as one of the proponents of a book on value-based evaluations, to be co-led together with Hur Hassnain, Rob D. van den Berg, Associate Professor Inga-Lill Aronsson, and Dr Juha Ilari Uitto.

The proponents of the book explained that value-based evaluation explores all stakeholders’ values to ‘value the values’ in a particular evaluation. Values are hard to measure but can be rewarding in terms of what they bring about understanding and unpacking the fundamental changes or the fact that no changes have occurred at all. However, incorporating these values requires diligent effort and presents challenges due to their subjective nature, unreliability, lack of empirical testing, and inherent complexity.

This is more than important when working in contexts of fragility or conflict, or with complex subjects like rural development, gender equality, humanitarian crises, transformational change. Moreover, values become even more difficult to engage with when applied in fragile, violent and turbulent environments, as in ongoing intra- or intergroup conflicts, interstate conflicts or in post-conflict states. In these environments, a range of development projects are planned and implemented to improve living conditions, for example infrastructure, health, education and peace projects that are evaluated from short-term and long-term perspectives.

Key dimensions of the INTEVAL value-based evaluations book will include justice, to be led by van den Berg; heritage and culture, to be led by Ass. Prof. Aronsson; climate, to be led by Dr Uitto; normative issues, to be led by Dr Naidoo; and stakeholders, to be led by Hassnain.

Highlights of the three-day included a plenary discussion around an INTEVAL editorial board, facilitated by Ida Lindkvist, Senior Advisor at NORAD; an open discussion on the role of evaluation with supranational foundations, moderated by Andrew Gray, Emeritus Professor at the University of Durham; and a debate around INTEVAL membership and sustainability of the group, facilitated by Dr Lindkvist, Prof. Gray and Frans Leeuw, Emeritus Professor at the University of Maastricht.

INTEVAL members also met up with members of Dutch and Flemish Evaluation Societies and Netherlands practitioners for two thought-provoking sessions. The first, chaired by Prof. Leeuw, focused on artificial intelligence and responsive evaluation. The second looked at the implications of the OECD criterion for evaluations that deal with ownership, responsible evaluations and the evaluand’s perspective.

Every year, for the past 39 years, INTEVAL affiliates have met in different countries across the globe. The group’s first meeting took place in Brussels, back in 1986, while IOE hosted the most recent gathering, which unfolded in Rome, at IFAD headquarters. Over the years, renown universities, research centres, national entities and international agencies have hosted the INTEVAL annual meetings, which have benefitted from the generous funding of multiple donor institutions.

The next INTEVAL meeting will take place in Washington DC, on 26-28 May 2025.