Written by: EnCompass Staff

Authors: Tessie Catsambas, Amanda Stek, and Michael Moses

EnCompass is proud to be attending and presenting at the 2024 European Evaluation Society (EES) Conference in Rimini, Italy, this September. As a women-owned business with work in over 70 countries, EnCompass’ evaluation practice strives to stay connected with regional associations and networks that are advancing monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Given our current work in Ukraine and our alignment with the EES mandate (“to stimulate, guide, and promote theory, practice, and utilization of evaluation in Europe and beyond”), we are thrilled to have a chance to reconnect with colleagues, partners, and friends in the region and beyond at this critical moment for development, humanitarian assistance, and evaluative practice. 

The EES conference theme is “Better Together: Collaborative Thought and Action for Better Evaluation.” Presenters were encouraged to frame their work around collaborative thinking, practice, or action. EnCompass’ three presentations, summarized below, highlight each of these strands. We look forward to sharing our conference takeaways in October, so stay tuned! 

EES 2024: Collaborative and Constructive Evaluation to Uncover Possibility for Positive Social Change in Times of Complexity and Tension 

How can evaluation focus on possibility, and if it did, what can this contribute to the quality and impact of our evaluations?  

This question is at the heart of a panel presentation to which Tessie Catsambas, EnCompass Founder and CEO, will contribute.  

Several synergistic approaches from different social science disciplines will inform this discussion: possibilism, Appreciative Inquiry, and positive psychology. We will explore how each of these disciplines’ tackles complexity, uncertainty, and social and political tension. Panelists—including Nicoletta Stame, Stewart Donaldson, Laura Fantini, and Elvira Celardi—will exchange ideas about what it means to be open to surprise and the unexpected, how to adopt a positive perspective of enlightenment and belief in new human and social possibilities, and how to put this to practice. They will also discuss the potential implications of adopting this possibilistic perspective for the role of commissioners and evaluators, the types of evaluation designs needed to catch change as it happens, and ways to make collaboration among evaluation actors the driving force of evaluation.  

In the day-to-day process of evaluation management, it is easy to miss the bigger picture of why we are doing this work. This discussion falls under the theme of collaborative thinking in evaluation and serves as a reminder, as Thomas Schwandt states, that how we think shapes what we choose to do and ultimately what we accomplish. “I am excited to be part of this discussion, because this is exactly what EnCompass is and wants to be part of more often: evaluations that stimulate collaboration and open possibilities for a desired future,” says Catsambas. 

Handing over the Torch: Intergenerational Insights on Evaluation Capacity-Building 

Tessie Catsambas, EnCompass Founder and CEO, will also participate in an exciting “fishbowl discussion” on evaluation capacity-building (ECB). This session will bring together several diverse perspectives on ECB as a collaborative practice, to explore whose capacity is being built on what subjects, to what end, and through which modalities. Four perspectives will inform this discussion: 

• ECB has evolved to respond to increased interest in more equitable and inclusive evaluation, evaluation in fragile and conflict settings, and not only “not doing harm,” but also stimulating transformative positive change in societies and ecosystems. Tessie Catsambas and Ghazia Aslam discuss these trends and their implications for ECB in a chapter they co-authored for the Research Handbook on Program Evaluation, edited by Kathryn Newcomer and Steven Mumford (2024).  
• EvalYouth has consistently called for building evaluation capacity to be one of the top priorities of new and emerging evaluators. UNFPA responded to this call and implemented youth-led evaluation.  {“201341983″:0,”335559739″:160,”335559740″:259}”>
• Evaluation companies and nonprofit organizations employ young and emerging evaluators in their work, and continuously try to build their capacity on the job. 
• Commissioners have significant ECB needs at different levels of their organizations, and to developing and maintaining the internal capacity needed to do the evaluations they implement and managing external evaluators and evaluation organizations. This is elaborated in Tessie Catsambas and E. Jane Davidson’s book Evaluation Management: How to Commission and Conduct Evaluations That Matter (2024).  

This discussion will include contributions from experienced and new evaluators, evaluation companies and commissioners, and other colleagues in a participatory and energetic exchange of ideas. It will also feature lessons from the youth-led evaluation commissioned by UNFPA. Together, we will demonstrate the value of intergenerational dialogue for building sustainable evaluation communities around how a future agenda of ECB should evolve. 

Collaboration That Makes a Difference: Leveraging Strategic Learning to Achieve Collective Impact in Complex Systems 

Strategists and evaluators are more aware than ever that achieving sustainable impact takes more than simply implementing a discrete project. We know that impact emerges over time, as diverse sets of actors work together to navigate, learn about, and iteratively shape complex systems (through collective action). What are the implications of this dawning awareness for evaluators? What specific approaches might we take to foster the conditions that facilitate collaborative learning and action, and what does doing so make possible? 

In this fishbowl session, a diverse panel of speakers will engage participants in an interactive discussion on these questions, and more.  

Michael Moses, EnCompass’ Senior Advisor who leads our work with philanthropy, will share insights and lessons from EnCompass’ longstanding Evaluation and Learning Partnership with the MacArthur Foundation in Nigeria, including how we have applied a methodological bricolage approach to drive adaptive learning for both Foundation staff and grantees.  

Amanda Stek, EnCompass MEL Director, is involved in our work with USAID/Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. She will reflect on how collaborative, adaptive management has supported the Mission’s agile continuity of its lifesaving work since 2022. To highlight one approach that EnCompass supported, she will explain how innovative, strategic learning workshops brought together teams and partners to seamlessly navigate strategy shifts, funding changes, staff transitions, and territorial uncertainty, and craft and pursue a shared vision for the future. 

Our colleague Andrea Azevedo from the Open Society Foundations will also share insights about how to use power-aware, integrated, and trust-based MEL to assess, guide, and over time, strengthen collaboration among diverse stakeholders seeking to counter corruption. 

We are excited to speak about our experiences, but we’re just as eager to hear from other EES participants—How are you supporting collective learning and action that makes a difference in complex systems? Come join us and contribute to the emerging thinking and practices needed for position evaluation for maximum impact.