From 2 to 4 December 2024, over 100 representatives from academia, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) , UN organizations, EvalYouth, and others were invited by the Asian Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA) in Colombo to discuss the challenges of the future for evaluation and what this means for evaluation capacity building. Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, called on the participants, in her inspiring opening speech ‘to develop training systems that produce evaluators who can adapt to changing contexts, embrace innovation and creativity and leverage technology and data.’
CEval was represented at the symposium by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Stockmann. In his keynote speech, he declared university degree programs in evaluation to be indispensable for the professionalization of evaluation. Due to the rapidly changing contextual conditions and demands on evaluation, a comprehensive teaching program that both complies with scientific standards and focuses on the usefulness of evaluation for the intended stakeholders is all the more important for teaching all the necessary evaluation skills. However, Stockmann also pointed out the challenges of establishing evaluation as a subject of study. In particular, he mentioned the low academic reputation of the subject, which leads to a high fluctuation of study programs, the large differences in the curricula based on different competence profiles for evaluators, and the great competition from alternative professionalization paths, which limits the demand for academic evaluation training.
On the occasion of the conference, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Stockmann received an award from APEA ‘for his dedication and leadership in promoting and advancing monitoring and evaluation education globally,’ which was presented by Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya.
Photos: APEA
