The future of development evaluation

Abstract

Over the past sixty years evaluators working on development have coalesced into a distinctive branch of the evaluation discipline. But opinion about the future of their occupation remains fragmented given the critical uncertainties of the operating environment, the tectonic shifts that have shaken the development scene since the 2008 financial crisis as well as the diverse conceptions of the role that evaluation can and should play in realigning policy priorities towards the emerging post 2015 sustainable development goals. In these vastly changed circumstances, the effectiveness of development evaluation hinges on forging an accurate appreciation of the challenges faced by evaluators in contributing to the development enterprise and, under the aegis of the International Year of Evaluation, on bringing together the scattered energies and resources of the burgeoning network of national, regional and global evaluation associations.