aes24 International Evaluation Conference

Welcome to Country & Smoking Ceremony: Wurundjeri Elder Perry Wandin
Opening address: Kiri Parata, President, Australian Evaluation Society

Keynote address: "Wiyi Yani U Thangani - re-imagining evaluation with a gender justice lens"

June Oscar AO

As the first woman to be the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June led the ground-breaking national project, Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices). In March 2024, the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice was launched at the Australian National University to carry the legacy of the project—which has gathered a powerful evidence base of the rights, issues and aspirations of thousands of First Nations women and girls.
The Institute is developing an applied measurement, evaluation and learning approach formed by the voices and cultures of First Nations women and girls. This approach will guarantee that women can own their own evidence and identify areas of research which respond to their strengths and priorities. June’s address will explore this unique approach and how evaluation methods shaped by women’s voices can lead to systemic transformation benefiting all Australians.

Authors: Charlie Tulloch (Policy Performance)

Many people will be attending their first AES conference - welcome!
This workshop is targeted at new and emerging evaluators who are seeking to build their familiarity with the key concepts and language used in evaluation and the main elements of evaluation project delivery.
This will provide you with a plotted history of the evaluation field so you feel more comfortable engaging in deeper-dive topics over coming days. The session is grounded in theory, drawing on leading thinkers and methods that are central to our practice.
Key concepts to be covered include: what is evaluation? why should we evaluate? what can be evaluated? when to evaluate? how to evaluate? where can I learn more about evaluation?
The forum will help many brave young and emerging evaluators to navigate through often choppy evaluation waters so they don't feel 'all at sea' over coming days.

Authors: Kathleen Stacey (beyond...Kathleen Stacey & Associates Pty Ltd), Cheryl Augustsson (Yorgum Healing Services), Raelene Rosas (NT Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation), Pat Thompson (Link-Up (Qld) Aboriginal Corporation), Jamie Sampson (Link-Up (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation)

Link-Up Services support Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed, fostered or adopted from their families as children, and their descendants who live with the ongoing impact of forcible removal policies, to reconnect with family, community, culture and Country. Wayfinding is at the core of our work - navigating unfamiliar territory with clients towards a hoped for destination of a greater sense of 'home', wherever this is possible, in a culturally safe, appropriate and trauma-informed manner.

In 2019, the National Indigenous Australians Agency funded development of a national Link-Up monitoring and evaluation strategy with the eight Link-Up Services operate across six jurisdictions. Each Link-Up Service is either a stand-alone Aboriginal community controlled organisations or based in an Aboriginal community controlled organisation.

This interactive workshop invites participants into our collective experiences of co-creating and implementing the M&E Strategy on a national basis, presented from the voices and position of Link-Up Services. We believe our experiences and learnings will be instructive for monitoring and evaluation activity with other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and programs.

Travel with us in reflecting on our monitoring and evaluation wayfinding journey over three phases of work. Pause with us at key points throughout the session to exercise your critical self-reflection and analysis skills, share your ideas and learn what has worked well or presented challenges for us and why in creating, navigating and implementing a culturally safe monitoring and evaluation strategy in a complex and demanding service context.

Professor, International Development, University of Bath, UK

As evaluators, we are often asked to find out ‘what caused what’ in the past, but also resist being labelled solely as hired evidence collectors. I argue for further effort to move beyond ‘what worked?’ to ‘what next?’- from outcome-activity links in the past to scenario-action possibilities and options in the future. Anticipatory evaluation can enhance the relevance and usefulness of our work, but also accentuates the challenges of appropriate framing, causal analysis, normative deliberation, and influencing. It increases uncertainty, recasts stakeholder relationships, and requires use of a wider range of complexity-informed methods. I explore these issues by reflecting on the scope for anticipatory evaluative practice in four diverse fields, each at a different level: planning doctoral research (interpersonal), appraising impact investment (organisational), mainstreaming social policy initiatives (national), and rethinking development (global). Becoming more future-oriented makes new demands on each of us as evaluation professionals, but also requires collective action to build stronger bridges with communities of practice in anticipatory action, appraisal, foresight, and future thinking.

Authors: Matt Healey (First Person Consulting)

The Design and Evaluation Special Interest Group (DESIG) was established in 2017. Its primary aim has been to explore the intersection of evaluation and design, and that aim has been interpreted in different ways over time. In 2024, the DESIG identified an opportunity to take the SIG model in a slightly different direction, embarking on an innovative venture with the launch of the Evaluation Lab, an initiative aimed at talk into action, and taking evaluators through a design process to address evaluation challenges.
Drawing inspiration from the concept of 'living labs,' which serve as real-world testing grounds, the Evaluation Lab created a space where evaluation professionals could come together. Employing a design-thinking process, the Lab guided participants through a structured expedition of defining, ideating, and prototyping solutions to tackle nominated challenges. Participants also learned pitch skills to communicate their solutions.
This Big Room Session provides an opportunity for the DESIG to outline the Evaluation Lab model, capped off with participants presenting their solutions through rapid-fire pitches, either live or pre-recorded, akin to explorers sharing tales of new lands discovered. The session's innovative twist lies in the audience's role, acting as both audience and judges. The audience will vote on their favourite solution, and be involved in crowing the first AES Evaluation Lab winner.
By blending lecture-style content with dynamic team presentations and active audience engagement, the Big Room Session not only highlights the critical role of design in navigating evaluation challenges but also demonstrates the practical application of these methodologies in charting a course through real-world problems.

Join the Australian Evaluation Society (AES) Board as we celebrate another year’s achievements by members of the AES, introduce newly elected Board members, and launch the AES strategic priorities 2024-2028.

Notice of Annual General Meeting | Agenda | 2024 Annual Report