Transforming Evaluation Systems to Mainstream Sustainability

Fellow and former President of Canadian Evaluation Society and recipient of the Society’s award for Contribution to Evaluation in Canada with over thirty-five years conducting evaluations in a wide range of natural resource and human settings now focusing on sustainability and climate.

Dr. Rowe has published extensively on developing a focus and capacity for evaluating sustainability, led the Canadian Evaluation Society assessment of a sustainability-ready evaluation capacity, is a founding member of Footprint established on the premise that all evaluations should include consideration of environmental sustainability. He has also developed a new approach for evaluating impacts (Rapid Impact Evaluation), for use-seeking assessments and for assessing net environmental impacts of an intervention. Andy served on the initial Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Adaptation Fund. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Catrina has over 20 years’ experience of managing and conducting evaluations at a number of UN agencies (including IFAD, UNEP and UNDP). Additionally, she also has experience working as an independent evaluation consultant. Her focus has been on rural development, environment, and inclusion issues. With a background in environmental planning and political science, she has made contributions in the field of natural resources, poverty and environment, gender, and pastoral development.

Dr. Jane Davidson is an internationally recognized evaluation specialist, best known for developing evaluation rubrics as a methodology for drawing conclusions about quality and value. She has also made significant contributions in the areas of causal inference for qualitative and mixed methods, and in synthesis methodologies for evaluation. Jane is former Associate Director of the internationally recognized Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, where she launched and directed the world’s first fully Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Evaluation. She was the 2019 recipient of the American Evaluation Association’s prestigious Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award.

Judith Friedman joined WFP in 2022 as the head of the Global and Synthesis Unit in the Office of Evaluation. Prior to joining WFP, Judith worked as an evaluator for nearly 15 years. She has conducted evaluations for a wide range of organizations including the Adaptation Fund, the Green Climate Fund, Save the Children, Water.org, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UN Women, Australia's Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and ILO. Judith has a background in international law and development. She has focused on policy, human rights, social and environmental safeguarding, gender, and ethics.

Patricia Rogers is an independent advisor, formerly Professor of Public Sector Evaluation at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia where she worked with national, state and local government, development banks, UN agencies and philanthropic foundations. She is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of BetterEvaluation, an international collaboration to improve monitoring and evaluation globally by creating, sharing and supporting the use of knowledge about evaluation methods, processes and approaches. Her work now focuses on ways to include environmental sustainability in all monitoring and evaluation through the Footprint Evaluation Initiative.