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Session Overview
Session
Is Academic Training Necessary For The Professionalization Of Evaluation?
Time:
Wednesday, 25/Sept/2024:
3:30pm - 5:00pm

Location: Bastioni

40 theater style
Session Topics:
Collaborative Action

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Presentations
ID: 321 / [Single Presentation of ID 321]: 1
Fishbowl
Topics: Collaborative Action
Keywords: education, academic training, professionalisation, certification, curricula, qualified evaluators, evaluation boom, commissioners, Master programmes, international dialog

Is Academic Training Necessary For The Professionalization Of Evaluation?

Reinhard Stockmann1, Maya Vijayaraghavan3, Juan Andrés Ligero Lasa4, Asela Kalugampitiya2

1Universität des Saarlandes, Germany; 2Center for Evaluation, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka; 3Asian Development Bank, Philippinen; 4Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

In recent years, the institutionalisation of evaluation has progressed enormously in many countries*.

These developments have greatly increased the demand for qualified evaluators, both in ministries and public administrations that conduct or commission evaluations to monitor and rationalise their decisions, and in implementing agencies and authorities that use evaluation results to improve their programmes. This boom in demand is matched by a rapidly growing supply of research institutes, consultancies and freelance evaluators available for external evaluation and consultancy.

To ensure a high quality of internal and external evaluations, highly qualified evaluators are essential. The question then arises as to which institutions provide education and training for these evaluators, and what content should be included in professional training to enable them to fulfil the various functions required for evaluation to be institutionalised in a country.

Academic training is a cornerstone of training specialists, as is the case in many professions (e.g. lawyers, doctors, auditors, etc.). Accordingly, many countries offer academic evaluation courses, including diploma and master's programmes. In Europe this is the case in 8 out of 16 countries surveyed, in Asia in 2 out of 11 and in North and South America in 6 out of 11. Additionally, there are a number of study programmes in which evaluation is integrated as a minor subject or as a special course or teaching unit.

However, entirely different professionalisation paths can also be observed, such as learning on the job or certification by evaluation associations (e.g. in the UK or Canada).

The fishbowl dialogue will explore whether academic training is necessary for the professionalization of evaluation and the assurance of high evaluation quality. If this is the case, then questions such as how should this training be designed, at what academic level should it take place, what content should be taught, who determines this, etc. need to be clarified. In addition, it must be answered what added value the academic form of training has in comparison to other professionalization paths that are practiced worldwide. Ultimately, the question is whether academic training is indispensable for the professionalization of evaluation and, if so, what consequences can be derived from this.

These questions will be addressed from an international comparative perspective, considering both the commissioner's and the academic training institution's (university) points of view.

The fishbowl topic makes an excellent contribution to the conference theme. In the discussion about whether academic training is necessary to professionalize evaluation, to institutionalize national M&E systems and to create better evaluations in general, collaborative thoughts are exchanged both in the international context (which also includes the Global South) and between commissioners and university representatives. This allows the demanders of evaluation to enter into an international dialogue with the providers of qualitatively well-trained evaluators (with an academic degree), which should ultimately lead to targeted, coordinated actions.

*Evaluation Globe - Compendium on the Institutionalisation of Evaluation:

Stockmann, Reinhard; Meyer, Wolfgang; Stockmann, Tanja. The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Africa (forthcoming).

Stockmann, Reinhard; Meyer, Wolfgang; Zierke, Niklas. The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Asia-Pacific, 2023.

Stockmann, Reinhard; Meyer, Wolfgang; Szentmarjay, Laszlo. The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in the Americas, 2022.

Stockmann, Reinhard; Meyer, Wolfgang; Taube, Lena. The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Europe, 2020.

[Speaker and Moderator] Reinhard Stockmann, Dr., Senior-Professor of Sociology, Founder and Director of the Center for Evaluation (CEval), Founder and Editor of the Journal of Evaluation (Zeitschrift für Evaluation), head of the English-language masters study course ‘Evaluation’ (MABLE), founder member of the German Evaluation Society (DeGEval). He has conducted hundreds of evaluation projects and published several hundred articles, over 30 monographies and edited more than 20 books, some of which have been translated into six different languages.

Asela Kalugampitiya is a Sri Lankan lawyer and immediate past President of the Asia Pacific Evaluation Association. He holds a PhD in evaluation from Germany. He is a visiting lecturer of the Master of Evaluation, University of Saarland, Germany and Post Graduate Diploma in M&E at University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Asela has been working in the Monitoring & Evaluation field over two decades including for United Nations as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. He serves as the Director- Center for Evaluation, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Maya Vijayaraghavan is an experienced economist and evaluator with a PhD in applied economics. She advises on evaluation methods and leads innovation initiatives at the Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank. Maya has previously led evaluation capacity development initiatives and evaluated policies, strategies, and operations.

Juan Andrés Ligero Lasa is Sociologist, professor at the Carlos III University and co-director of the Master degree in Program Evaluation and Public Policies, UCM. Evaluator, methodologist and social researcher. Member of the Spanish Council on Drug Addictions. He has received several awards for his evaluations and has various publications on evaluation methodologies..



 
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