WEBINAR – Common Flaws in Evaluation

Howard White, Director of Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis at the Global Development Network will present his perspective on common flaws in evaluation that he comes across and how they can be avoided. Howard’s co-host will be Kirstine Szifris, the new President of the UK Evaluation Society.

Evaluations have two key functions: lesson learning and accountability.  How well they can fill these tasks depends on the suitability of the evaluation design to address the evaluation questions of interest, and the quality of those evaluations. Unfortunately, many evaluations suffer from flaws which reduce the confidence we can have in their findings, and their usefulness for both lesson learning and accountability.

This webinar will draw on Howard’s extensive experience of reviewing, synthesising and analysing evaluations to highlight the most common flaws that he comes across. There are many excellent evaluations which avoid these common pitfalls. But they are still sufficiently common to deserve drawing attention to. After all, better evaluations can mean better lives for all.

Howard White

Howard White is Director of Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis at the Global Development Network. Previously, he was CEO of The Campbell Collaboration, where he led innovations in governance, publishing, staffing, evidence synthesis products and tools to support evidence use in decision-making. He was also the founding Executive Director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and led the impact evaluation program of the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group. He has been given awards for services to evaluation by the governments of Benin and Uganda.

Howard was Managing Editor of the Journal of Development Studies (2002-2013) and founding Managing Editor of the Journal of Development Effectiveness. His research areas include aid and development effectiveness, anti-poverty interventions, macroecomomic modelling and policy, evaluation and evidence synthesis methods, and mixed methods approaches in research and evaluation.  Howard started his career as an academic researcher at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, and the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.

Session Chaired by:

Kirstine Szifris

President, UK Evaluation Society

Registration

Open to All

Members & Non-Members: FREE!

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This webinar will be recorded, Q&A removed, and it will be shared freely on GDN’s YouTube channel.

For more information or to engage with the Global Development Network, please view their website.