Evaluation, defined as āthe process of determining the merit, worth, or value of somethingā has experienced significant growth since the 1960s, when it is recognized as becoming a formalized practice in the U.S. and Canada. During this time, evaluation practitioners and scholars have developed a wide array of approaches for practicing evaluation; invented new methods for evaluative inquiry; expanded training, both within and beyond the academy; created competencies for professional evaluators; and within Canada, established a means for formally credentialing professional evaluators. These examples highlight that efforts to strengthen the evaluation field to date have primarily focused on how to professionalize the field of evaluation and grow a cadre of well-trained and competent program evaluators. It is our belief that the time has now come to turn greater attention to strengthening the capacity of organizations to promote and support high-quality evaluation practiceĢżā a practice more broadly recognized in the evaluation field as āevaluation capacity buildingā (ECB).
Currently, there are limited opportunities to learn about ECB. Additionally, though we have learned much about ECB in the past 20 years (Bourgeois et al., 2023) there is still much room to innovate and learn more about what effective ECB practice looks like. We createdĢżEC3 to develop the next generation of ECB scholars and practitioners while also contributing to our collective understanding about āwhat worksā in ECB.
The Evaluation Capacity Case Challenge (EC3) will take place onĢżMay 30 and 31, 2025, at ŠćÉ«Ö±²„ in beautiful Montreal, Quebec drawing in students, early-career professionals, and evaluation experts from Canada and the United States to generate creative, yet practical, solutions for an organization that desires to support and sustain its evaluation practice.
