Development Evaluation in Times of Turbulence (Dealing with Crises That Endanger Our Future)

The recent economic, social, and political turbulence has adversely affected both developed and developing countries. Development Evaluation in Times of Turbulence: Dealing with Crises That Endanger Our Future uses these traumatic years as the backdrop to observe and reflect on the consequences for development in general and evaluation in particular. The presence of turbulence in multiple sectors-especially in food, fuel, and finance-indicates that conventional evaluation behavior and beliefs are ill-suited to these new times. New ways of conducting development evaluation are needed, including more integrated approaches, increased stakeholder participation, better capacity building, and more effective implementation of the emerging paradigm of national monitoring and evaluation systems. Nearly 350 development evaluators from 85 countries came together at the 2011 Global Assembly of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) in Amman, Jordan, to analyze the changes resulting from the turbulence and how these changes fundamentally affect development evaluation. The chapters in this volume have been developed from papers presented at the meeting. This book will be of interest to members of the evaluation community, evaluators in developing countries, scholars of the present economic and social turbulence, and faculty members and students of evaluation at the undergraduate and graduate levels.