aes17

Welcome to Country: Paul House, on behalf of Ngambri-Ngurmal, Ngunnawal-Wallabollooa Aboriginal peoples of the ACT

Conference opening address: Dr Lyn Alderman, AES President

Keynote address: Does Evaluation contribute to the public good?
Sandra Mathison (University of British Columbia and Executive Director, Institute for Public Education)

While perhaps an uncomfortable consideration, we need to ask whether evaluation contributes to the public good. By most accounts, evaluators’ work isn’t contributing enough to poverty-reduction, human rights, and access to food, water, education and health care. We need to consider whether formal evaluation practice may be getting in the way of and hindering social change. Evaluation is framed by micro-context, as well as the macro-dominant socio-political ideologies. We need to be conscious of these frames and reflect on how they shape our practice. To provoke dialogue on these ideas, this talk shares thoughts about how evaluators, funders, and users of program evaluation could do more to make a positive contribution to the public good through evaluation.