aes24 International Evaluation Conference

Authors: Penny Baldock (Department of Human Services South Australia ),Jessie Sleep (Far West Community Partnerships, AU)

The multi-jurisdictional South Australian Safety and Wellbeing Taskforce is the lead mechanism, and the accountable body to develop strategies and sustainable, place-based responses that ensure the safety and wellbeing of remote Aboriginal Visitors in Adelaide and other regional centres in the State.

This presentation discusses the challenges of establishing an evaluative learning strategy for the Taskforce that meets the needs of multiple government agencies and stakeholders, multiple regional and remote communities, and multiple nation groups.

In a complex system, this is a learning journey, requiring us to adapt together to seek new ways of understanding and working that truly honour the principles of data sovereignty, community self-determination, and shared decision-making.
As we begin to more truly centre communities as the locus of control, and consider the far- reaching reform that will be necessary to deliver on our commitments under Closing the Gap, this presentation provides an important reflection on the skills, knowledge and expertise that will be required to build evaluation systems and processes that support change.

One of the most exciting developments to date has been the establishment of a multi-agency data sharing agreement, which will enable government data to be shared with Far West Community Partnerships, a community change organisation based in Ceduna, and combined with their community owned data in order to drive and inform the Far West Change Agenda.

We present the story of our journey so far, our successes, our failures, and extend an invitation to be part of the ongoing conversation. to support the change required for evaluation success.

Authors: Ellie Taylor (The Salvation Army)

Amplifying survivor voices has been the cornerstone of The Salvation Army's work in the anti-slavery realm. How does this translate to the monitoring and evaluation space? How do we truly represent the voices and experiences of those with lived experience of modern slavery in monitoring and evaluation, whilst aligning with key human rights principles?

Our Research Team are exploring how to centre survivor voices in the evaluation space. This session will detail use of a representative participatory evaluation approach to monitor and evaluate the Lived Experience Engagement Program (LEEP) for survivors of criminal labour exploitation. In this session we will explore the challenges and learnings uncovered through this project.

The LEEP is designed to empower survivors of criminal labour exploitation to share their expertise to make change. Piloted in 2022-2023, and continuing into 2024-2025, the LEEP - and resulting Survivor Advisory Council - provides a forum for survivors to use their lived experience to consult with government - to assist in preventing, identifying and responding to modern slavery.

The key points explored in this session will include:

• Realities of implementing an adaptive model, including continuous integration of evaluation findings into an iterative survivor engagement model.
• The importance of stakeholder inclusivity, integrating lived experience voices and amplifying them alongside program facilitators and government representatives.
• Complexities of evaluation in the modern slavery space, particularly when victim-survivors of forced marriage are included. We will speak to the need for trauma-informed, strengths-based measures and facilitating partnerships with the people the program serves.

Leading the session will be the The Salvation Army's project lead with a PhD in mental health and over 12 years of experience working with diverse community groups in Australia and internationally. They have extensive experience presenting at conferences both domestically and internationally.

Authors: Donna Loveridge (Independent Consultant), Ed Hedley (Itad Ltd UK, GB)

The nature and magnitude of global challenges, such as climate change, poverty and inequality, biodiversity loss, food insecurity and so on, means that $4 trillion is needed annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Government and philanthropic funding is not enough but additional tools include businesses and sustainable finance. Evaluators may relate to many objectives that business and sustainable finance seek to contribute to but discomfort can arise in the mixing of profit, financial returns, impact and purpose.

Sustainable finance, impact investing, and business for good are growing globally and provides opportunities and challenges for evaluators, evaluation practice and the profession.
This session explores this new landscape and examines:

• What makes us uncomfortable about dual objectives of purpose and profit, notions of finance and public good, and unfamiliar stakeholders and languages, and what evaluators can do in response.
• The opportunities for evaluators to contribute to solving interesting and complex problems with current tools and skills and where is the space for developing evaluation theory and practice.
• How evaluation practice and evaluators' competencies might expand and deepen, and not get left behind in these new fields, and also sustaining evaluations relevance to addressing complex challenges.

The session draws on experience in Australia and internationally to share some practical navigation maps, tools and tips to help evaluators traverse issues of values and value, working with investors and businesses, and identify opportunities to add value.

Authors: Kaitlyn Scannell (Minderoo Foundation), Adriaan Wolvaardt (Minderoo Foundation, AU), Nicola Johnstone (Minderoo Foundation, AU), Kirsty Kirkwood (Minderoo Foundation, AU)

We have been on a journey to bring awareness, evidence and understanding to the impact of our organisation since inception, and in earnest since 2016. For years, we felt the tension of trying to solve complex problems with measurement and learning approaches that are better suited to solving simple problems.

To change the world, we must first change ourselves. In early 2023 we had the extraordinary opportunity to completely reimagine our approach to impact measurement and learning. What we sought was an approach to measurement and learning that could thrive in complexity, rather than merely tolerate it, or worse, resist it.
We are not alone in our pursuit. Across government and the for-purpose sector, practitioners are exploring and discovering how to measure, learn, manage, and lead in complexity. Those who explore often discover that the first step they need to take is to encourage the repatterning of their own organisational system. A system which, which in the words of Donella Meadows, "naturally resists its own transformation."

In this presentation we will delve into two themes that have emerged from our journey so far:

• Transforming ourselves - We will explore what it takes to embed a systems-led approach to measurement, evaluation and learning in an organisation.
• Sharing knowledge - We will discuss methods for generating, sharing, and storing knowledge about what works for measuring, evaluating, and learning in complexity.

The purpose of this session is to share what we have learnt with anyone who is grappling with how their organisation might measure and learn in complexity. We have been touched by the generosity of those who have accompanied us on our journey, sharing their experiences and wisdom. This presentation marks our initial effort to pay that generosity forward.

Authors: Rachel Wilks (Grosvenor), Kristy Hornby (Grosvenor), Sarika Bhana (Grosvenor)

What is evaluation? Better Evaluation defines it as "any systematic process to judge merit, worth or significance by combining evidence and values". Many government organisations and some private and not-for-profit entities use evaluations as an auditing tool to measure how well their programs are delivering against intended outcomes and impacts and achieving value for money. This lends itself to viewing evaluation as an audit or 'tick-box' exercise when it is really measuring the delivery of an organisation's mandate or strategy (or part thereof). Viewing evaluation more as an audit than a core part of continuous improvement presents a risk of our reports collecting dust.

During this session, we will discuss factors that build a continuous improvement mindset across evaluation teams, as well as across the broader organisation. This will include exploring how to manage the balance between providing independent advice with practical solutions that program owners and other decision-makers can implement more readily, as well as how to obtain greater buy-in to evaluation practice. We present the features that evaluations should have to ensure findings and conclusions can be easily translated into clear actions for improvement.

We contend that it is important to consider evaluation within the broader organisational context, considering where this might link to strategy or how it may be utilised to provide evidence to support funding bids. This understanding will help to ensure evaluations are designed and delivered in a way that best supports the wider organisation.

We end by sharing our post-evaluation playbook - a practical tool to help take your evaluations from pesky paperweight to purposeful pathway.