The President of the Canadian Evaluation Society talks to IEG about taking the first step towards professionalization. 

Benoit Gautier, President of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES), visited Washington a number of weeks ago to share his views and experience regarding the society’s credentialing experiment. Benoit kindly agreed to be interviewed by IEG, and we are pleased to be able to share that interview with you.

What the CES has done represents a bold step towards professionalization, and will no doubt be of interest, particularly given the high level of response to and discussion around my recent blog on professionalization. I plan to return to the subject next week, reflecting further on my own thoughts and on your comments, and in anticipation of my involvement in the Year of Evaluation event in Saarbrucken, Germany, that will focus on the future of training and education in evaluation.

So, stay tuned, keep the comments coming, and, in the meantime, enjoy the conversation with Benoit.    

Comments

Submitted by Ian goldman on Wed, 06/03/2015 - 08:03

Permalink
important for an evaluation to be done of this experiment to see whether it is worth the considerable effort to go down this route.

Submitted by Caroline Heider on Mon, 06/08/2015 - 05:08

In reply to by Ian goldman

Permalink
Ian, yes it seems to take some experimentation and a thoughtful consultative process, as demonstrated by the Canadian experience. And, the journey might be different for countries as compared to multilateral institutions. The exciting expansion of graduate programs for evaluators -- something that did not exist at my time -- will also play a role in shaping the future of the profession.

Submitted by Albert-neas Gakusi on Sun, 08/23/2015 - 01:10

Permalink
The question as to know who should be considered as an evaluator and who is entitled to consider that somebody is an evaluator is an important one. More often than not, it suffices to have a degree in something to claim to be an evaluator even if you do not have any relevant background in economics and other social sciences. I even have seen cases where unexperienced persons in evaluation push out the evaluation experienced evaluators on the ground that they have spent more than X number of years in the evaluation. Setting up some clear requirements to be considered as an evaluator appears to be a right direction to take.

Add new comment