Transformative spaces for evaluation in programs, policies and organisations

The final issue of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia for 2023 brings together a collection of articles that speak to the transformative role of evaluation and evaluators. My mind goes back to Donna Mertens who comments: ‘Evaluators have a role to play in bringing their data into communities in ways that facilitate its use for social transformation' (Mertens, 2010, p. 9). While it might be true to say ‘evaluation can’t change the world’, many of us have built our work as evaluators on the premise that we can make a difference. Indeed, there are plenty of examples within the Journal where articles show that change was both the intention and outcome of an evaluation (e.g., Harrison, 2023; Rijswijk et al., 2015). Change is front of mind for many of our authors in this issue, whether that be organisational change, system change, change in the way evaluations are commissioned or advocacy for social change more generally. Mertens also speaks of a transformative lens in evaluation (Mertens, 2023), suggesting a role for evaluation in education, mental health, environmental policy, criminal justice systems, refugees, economic development, gender-based violence and agriculture. While evaluation certainly does not necessarily result in change, this issue of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia points to several possibilities...