aes24 International Evaluation Conference

Authors: Julian King (Julian King & Associates), Adrian Field (Dovetail)

Ethics in Pacific Evaluation: Voices of the Rebbilib is a research project under the Strengthening Pacific MEL initiative of the Pacific Community. The ethics of evaluation practice are some of the most consistent norms documented by evaluation societies and associations internationally. This is because a clear set of ethical guidelines provides evaluators of all skill levels an understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the way they conduct themselves in practice. Similarly, codifying ethical principles of evaluation within a guideline or manual assumes that this is an effective way of ensuring evaluators adhere to a high standard of ethical practice. This presentation presents a provocation of the assumed norms of ethical evaluation practice through the sharing of experiences from the Pacific.
The panel will consider the question of whether normative ethics actually improve evaluation practice in the Pacific. A literature review of evaluation principles guidelines and manuals identified the normative ethics including the principle of best judgement in the application of ethical principles and values. This principle asks evaluators to confront their positionality within an evaluatative context and confront their own power in evaluation. The presentation will illuminate what this looks like for experienced evaluators working in the Pacific.
This provocation entices a new ethics-oriented entry point to help us seek solutions to accelerate action towards localising evaluation practice in the Pacific. This panel discussion will include key findings from a broader study on this topic which includes several leading Pacific evaluators. The findings suggests that the principle of exercising one's best judgement requires greater appreciation of culture and context with recommendations about how to achieve this. Building on the Pacific Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Capacity Strengthening wayfinding tool the Rebbilib, this research calls on evaluators and evaluation commissioners to demand more from evaluative principles and values.