Paper short abstract:

Led by the question “Whose value counts?”, this paper explores what INGOs can do to decolonise evaluation practice. We reflect on current practices with a decolonial lens and propose steps Christian Aid and other INGOs could take to shift knowledge power towards local and indigenous stakeholders.

Paper long abstract:

Scholars and practitioners around the world are critically reflecting on the ways in which current evaluative practices continue to reproduce colonial structures and logics, amid calls to decolonise aid and its associated epistemologies. Led by the question “Whose value counts?”, we ask what INGOs can do to move towards a decolonial approach to evaluation.

This paper shares reflections from more than 70 colleagues and peers, based in 15 countries, on how, why and for whom ‘conventional’ evaluation practice might be seen as problematic, when critiqued with a decolonial mindset. Following a discussion of the flaws in current practice, the paper argues that there is a need to rebalance knowledge power towards people who are experiencing poverty and injustice themselves.

The paper then proposes some practical ways forward which organisations like Christian Aid could consider. Through rethinking the evaluation cycle with an intentional decolonial mindset aimed at redistributing power at every stage, we hope to create space for change and contribute to a discussion on how the evaluation space can be “given back” to its primary stakeholders, meeting their knowledge management needs and valuing their ways of knowing.