Earlier in September, Ethos of Engagement co-director Ellen Lewis was one of the keynote speakers at the 62nd Annual Operational Research Society Conference. Her presentation, titled Inclusive Systemic Evaluation: Deepening Understandings of Engagement and Community introduced Inclusive Systemic Evaluation as an emerging evaluation approach, developed in partnership with UN Women and designed to deal with the complexity of applying the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Inclusive Systemic Evaluation is grounded in a key principle of Community Operational Research (COR): that ‘engagement’ and ‘community’ need to be defined in a locally meaningful way to address complex cultural, organizational, social and environmental issues. In a global development context, Inclusive Systemic Evaluation is part of a larger response to shifting development actors (e.g. donors, multilateral organizations, NGOs and participants) away from narrow understandings of stakeholders and context to a more inclusive process of economic and social development. Each intervention is seen as an opportunity for people to learn about how to build gender equality, sustainability, and socio-economic justice into action for social change.
Watch the full presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_LI0PO2OY