“Did evaluation meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis?”

“Were evaluators caught flat-footed by the restrictions and challenges?”

“How were evaluation practices, architectures, and values affected?”

International experts explored these questions on December 6, 2023 in a frank take on the shortcomings of evaluation during the pandemic as well as learning, innovations and successes using institutional, national and disciplinary perspectives. Policy Evaluation in the Era of COVID-19 (Eliadis, Naidoo & Rist, eds., Routledge, 2023), now available open-access, offers a broad canvas of responses and ideas about the challenges of evaluation practice in preparing for the next global crisis. Practitioners and established academic experts in the field of policy evaluation will present insights drawn from Australia, Canada, the UK, as well as the United Nations. This webinar launches the open-access publication of 2023 book, Policy Evaluation in the Era of COVID-19 .

Related Resources

• Report: 38th annual meeting of the International Research Group for Policy and Program Evaluation (INTEVAL) - June 8, 2023
  • Event recap: "38th INTEVAL annual meeting elevates wisdom on evaluation"
• 20^th Anniversary report of IOE: "More than a journey | 20 years of independence" - October 6, 2023
  • Event recap: "Independent evaluation makes IFAD a more credible institution"

Agenda, Speakers, and Presentations

Welcome and Introductions

Leslie Fierro, moderator
Sydney Duder Professor of Evaluation, Max Bell School Public Policy, McGill University

"Meta-Analysis of Evaluation Key Trends and Learnings during COVID-19"

Mariel Aramburu MPP'21
Partnerships Officer, United Nations World Food Programme

"Implications for Evaluation: What We Learn from the UN and Country COVID-19 Response Plans and Reflecting on Future Scenarios"

Indran A. Naidoo
Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

"The Unbearable Lightness of Rights: Evaluation, Ethics and COVID-19 Responses"

Pearl Eliadis
Human rights lawyer and Associate Professor (Professional) at McGill University

“COVID Crisis: Time to Recalibrate Evaluation”

Maria Barrados, executive-in-residence at the Sprott School of Business and adjunct professor, Carleton University

Steve Montague, adjunct professor for Carleton University's School of Public Policy and Administration

"The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Effective Use of Evaluation in Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals"

"Knowledge Production in a Pandemic: Supporting Accountability at Pace United Kingdom and Canada"

Afterword

Ray C. Rist
Founder, IPDET; past president of the International Development Evaluation Association