Purpose of EvalIndigenous:
EvalIndigenous is a multi-stakeholder partnership which, through the recognition of the different world views and valuing the strengths of Indigenous evaluation practices advances the contribution of Indigenous evaluation to global evaluation practice. For too long governments and funders have evaluated programs implemented in Indigenous communities using transient evaluators, who are unfamiliar with the cultural realities, protocols and community contexts. EvalIndigenous promotes the use of different evaluation approaches and methods to ensure evaluations are culturally sensitive, inclusive, and are tools in the improvement of community well-being including the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development of individuals, families and communities.
History of EvalIndigenous:
EvalIndigenous began in November 2015 as a global task force network of EvalPartners. EvalIndigenous’ roots provide the tribal critical and Indigenous theories and methods, as well as the legal and political distinctions of Indigenous peoples and Tribal/First Nations, and the partnership shares how evaluation is done “by us and for us”. The development of partnerships and the documentation where these approaches have been used will be shared with other organizations and evaluators in order to strengthen national capacity for evaluation. The UN General Assembly resolution on national evaluation capacity development supports the importance of strengthening national capacity for evaluation. It is essential that strengthening national evaluation capacity includes valuing the contributions of Indigenous world views and practices as well as recognizing the sovereignty of Indigenous nations.
Furthermore, UN Article 18 regarding the Rights of Indigenous peoples states, that “Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own Indigenous decision-making institutions.” Therefore, there is also a need that strengthened national evaluation capacity recognizes the differing cultural and contextual realities within Indigenous communities and among Indigenous peoples. As such, the documentation and sharing of cultural protocols is an important contribution of EvalIndigenous.
What EvalIndigenous does:
EvalIndigenous informs individuals engaged in evaluation with Indigenous communities through a) documenting the evaluation and research protocols developed by Indigenous communities and organizations; b) facilitating learning and sharing of experiences c) promoting innovation in approaches and methods used in Indigenous evaluation and, d) disseminating information regarding ‘lessons learned’. In addition, EvalIndigenous, as conceptualized, communicates and networks with Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), UN agencies, other international organizations, Indigenous governments, other governments, academia, think tanks and private foundations.
EvalIndigenous Indigenous Voices Project
The Indigenous Voices project (the Voices project) is a project being led out by EvalIndigenous, a global collective of Indigenous Evaluation practitioners. The Voices project was developed as a means of highlighting the presence and work of Indigenous people that have the tools and knowledge to practice evaluation, especially with their communities. In part, this project as a way of speaking back to those that wish to do evaluation work in Indigenous communities but who express a lack of awareness of the Indigenous evaluators that are already present and practicing in their communities.
Currently, there are 45 interview clips of Indigenous evaluators publicly available, with practitioners from Aotearoa, Turtle Island, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Africa, Tanzania, Burkina Faso amongst others. In these clips, practitioners speak about their work, their tools, their community knowledge and knowledge systems and experience working as evaluation practitioners. This year, EvalIndigenous are seeking to highlight more voices from the global south. To find all 45 clips, click HERE. Clips are also shared out on the EvalIndigenous Faceook page. For more information and/or if you would like to be one of the voices in this project, please contact Fiona Cram (EvalIndigenous Co-Chair) at: fionac@katoa.net.nz
EvalIndigenous Contact
For more information, please contact:
Fiona Cram: fmcram@gmail.com
Serge Eric Yakeu: serge.eric01@gmail.com
EvalIndigenous Links and Articles:
-EvalIndigenous Website: https://www.evalpartners.org/evalindigenous/about-EvalIndigenous YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-6faO1A5rHTHmZiqgdAtWw -VOPE Toolkit: https://vopetoolkit.ioce.net/en/section/44-evalindigenous -Bowman-Farrell, N. R., & Bremner, L. (2020). EvalIndigenous origin story: Effective practices within local contexts to inform the field and practice of evaluation. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 34(3), pp. 425-441. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe.68914