B 6. Introduction to Sustainability-Ready Evaluation

Trainer: Andy Rowe, Jeneen R. Garcia
Level: Intermediate/Advanced 
Language: English 

Workshop description:

The importance of sustainability is rising and undeniable, yet sustainability is largely missing from evaluation including evaluation of the SDGs. This workshop will introduce concepts, techniques and processes for evaluators to plan and conduct evaluations from a sustainability-ready perspective.
Targeting more experienced evaluators and evaluation commissioners with capacities in mixed methods the workshop will facilitate participants' understanding of sustainability as coupled human and natural systems, how to introduce sustainability to theories of change and manage the politics that will arise.
 
Participants will also learn important differences between human and natural systems including temporal and spatial scales, social and natural science methods, promoting use and the importance of boundary spanning. Participants will be asked to contribute to enhancing a recently published checklist for sustainability-ready evaluation.
 
Learning outcomes:

Awareness of the differences a sustainability focus brings to evaluation
Ability to include sustainability in Theories of Change
Knowledge of the differences in attributes for evaluation in human and natural systems
Knowledge and some capacity applying a checklist for sustainability evaluation.