A Globally-Inspired Road Map to Transform Local Destinies

by Jane Davidson

The best of the best evaluation from around the globe is only truly powerful when it is blended with local expertise. That combination is lethally effective, not merely for providing after-the-fact summaries of effectiveness, but as a potent change lever in its own right. In this keynote, Jane demonstrates how an elegantly simple evaluative monitoring system helped shatter assumptions and create deep systemic shifts and dramatic outcomes. Key elements were (1) making measurable the stuff that really matters, including ‘intangible’ outcomes (think ʻIke Hawaiʻi, for example); (2) a deliberate focus on the most disadvantaged groups as the ‘lens’ through which to see what needed to change for everyone; (3) using high-level frameworks from the global evaluation (and policy/programming) universe, but tailoring them for context, with the utmost respect for the critical importance of local expertise, and particularly the wisdom of our kūpuna, as well as parents and ʻohana.

Hailing from Aotearoa/New Zealand and with a doctorate from CGU (California), Jane runs her own evaluation consulting firm, serving central government and other clients across multiple sectors. Her work includes evaluation capacity building, training and development, strategic evaluation advice and support, collaborative and participatory evaluation, as well as independent evaluations.

Jane is a winner of AEA's Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award, co-editor of the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, and former Associate Director of The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University and Director of WMU's Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Evaluation.

She is author of Evaluation Methodology Basics: The Nuts and Bolts of Sound Evaluation (SAGE, 2004), which was recommended by AEA President Debra Rog in her Evaluation 2009 presidential address and is widely used internationally by both practitioners and graduate students.

Jane has presented numerous keynote addresses and professional development workshops internationally, including those for the American Evaluation Association, the UK Evaluation Society, the Evaluator’s Institute (U.S.A.), the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association, and the University of South Africa.

Visit Jane's website: http://realevaluation.com/