Evaluation in Crisis - What did we learn

This is with great pleasure we share with you the lessons we learnt from the INTPA/ESS initiative Evaluation in Crisis (EvalCrisis). As you may remember EvalCrisis was launched in May 2020 to support the INTPA colleagues and the global evaluation community by producing and sharing reflections and experiences on the adaptation of evaluation processes and methods to the changing context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. EvalCrisis consisted of an annotated Bibliography of resources produced globally, a Podcast series in which we hosted evaluation experts from around the world to share their experiences during the Covid-19 crisis, and a series of Blogs posts. The initiative (accessible from here) attracted thousands of visitors and was widely referenced in news and conferences worldwide.

The lessons that we learnt from EvalCrisis are organised by 6 themes: (i) Fluidity of context, (ii) Ethics, (iii) Adaptive evaluations, (iv) Local evaluation skills, (v) Methods and tools and (vi) Remote techniques, and by different topics within each theme.

They are summarised in a short animated video and described in a lessons learnt paper that is available both in a printable and in an interactive format; you can access them by clicking on this link.

In the words of Mr Félix Fernández-Shaw, Director for Sustainable Development Policy and Coordination: "We want these lessons learnt to be food for thought in further enhancing our capacity to improve evaluations and to inform better policies, even beyond the Covid-19 crisis".

We would like to request you to get inspired by these resources within the frame of your evaluation initiatives and kindly share these widely within your office, with your partners and evaluation consultants. If you use Social Media, we would also appreciate you spreading the words there with the hashtag #EvalCrisis.