Talking evaluation literacy in NGOs at #Eval18

Evaluation in NGOs in Australia has evolved at a fast pace. Ten years ago the evaluation
landscape in the non-profit sector in Australia looked very different than it does today. In
what has become a rather volatile socio-political environment, organisations are under
increasing demand to measure their outcomes; even their social impact. As a result, more
and more organisations are grappling with how to engage with evaluation meaningfully in a
way that makes sense for the context in which they work. Organisations’ ability to do this
ranges from limited to sophisticated, depending on a variety of factors including financial
and human resources, evaluation knowledge and skills, and motivation. Where they exist,
internal evaluators in NGOs are required to navigate this multifaceted issue on daily basis.

The annual AES Conference, we find, has become a great space for NGO evaluators to
connect, share, debrief, and celebrate their work in this area, and this year was no different.
It is important that NGO evaluators come together in these ways as their role is incredibly
complex and it is very useful to discuss and navigate this complexity with those “in the
know”. For not only are these individuals practicing the complex discipline of evaluation,
they are doing so in an organisational environment where they must continually consider
factors such as culture, leadership, long-term professional relationships, and complicated
systems and processes. These factors can “make or break” evaluation efforts and building
an enabling environment for evaluation to flourish is indeed a matter of organisational
change. It is a challenging, fascinating and at times frustrating context to work in.

One factor that internal evaluators in NGOs must pay close attention to is how to promote
evaluation among colleagues. As internal evaluators working in diverse NGOs we have
found that motivating and enabling others to access, understand and use evaluation
information is an important part of our roles. We have found that understanding social
connections and how people work together is important for building evaluation literacy -
making evaluation more appropriate, understandable and accessible.

The AES conference provided us with a great opportunity to discuss this topic with our
colleagues across the NGO sector. Interesting ideas were shared about ways that internal
evaluators can promote evaluation and support colleagues to access, understand and use
evaluation. Some key highlights include:
 Collaboratively develop a plan to link individuals to the success of the group or
common goal
 Use a system to manage information and hold individuals accountable for their
contribution
 Create opportunities for engaging and providing encouragement
 Tailor your communication style appropriately for multiple audiences
 Incorporate opportunities for reflection to consider how well the group is
functioning

We look forward to continuing the discussion in Sydney next year.

Look out for our article in the first edition of the Canadian Journal of Evaluation in 2019
where we go into more detail on the topic of evaluation literacy in NGOs.

A Slack Workspace (On the inside looking out – Internal and NGO evaluators community of
practice) has been created to keep the NGO evaluation conversation alive. Anyone working
in an internal evaluation role in an NGO is welcome to join.

Alicia McCoy is Head of Research and Evaluation at Beyond Blue and has recently completed
her PhD at The University of Melbourne.

Alison Rogers is the Strategic and Innovation Advisor with The Fred Hollows Foundation’s
Indigenous Australia Program and a PhD candidate with the Centre for Program Evaluation
at The University of Melbourne.

Leanne Kelly is the Research and Development Coordinator at Windermere Child and Family
Services and is undertaking a PhD through scholarship with the Alfred Deakin Institute at
Deakin University.