These posts explore what evaluation looks like in practice when settings are complex, long-term, and relational. They draw on my experience from place-based environmental programmes, multi-actor partnerships, and collaborative initiatives, where change unfolds unevenly over time.
Rather than presenting methods or tools, they reflect on what this work asks of evaluators, how judgement and learning are sustained, and what happens at the boundaries of programmes, institutions, and relationships. Across these reflections, systems thinking and complexity-aware approaches are present as a way of seeing and working, rather than as a separate set of tools or methods.
If you are looking for curated resources, frameworks, and guidance on monitoring, evaluation and learning, the MEL hub page is the place to start. The posts below sit alongside that material as practice reflections, offering a more personal account of how these ideas play out in real-world settings.
Evaluation as practice in complex settings (core reflections)
These posts explore evaluation as an ongoing practice, shaped by relationships, institutional context, and the need to work with uncertainty over time.
- [Blog] Evaluation in complex settings: reflections on practice and evaluator roles – Reflects on how evaluation shifts when outcomes are emergent and values are contested. Shares five grounded patterns from complexity-aware monitoring, evaluation and learning (CAMEL), and considers what this approach asks of evaluators in practice.
- [Blog] When evaluation is also design: complexity, place, and continuity in multi-actor work – Treats complexity-aware evaluation as a practice stance rather than a set of methods. Explores what it means to think of evaluation as a form of design that shapes how learning, accountability, and responsibility are carried forward over time, particularly in place-based work where programmes end but places continue.
- [Blog] When programmes end: places and relationships continue – Explores what happens at the boundary between a programme ending and the ongoing life of a place. Reflects on how evaluation artefacts, including reports, rubrics, and shared tools, can carry learning, value, and accountability beyond formal programme structures.
- [Blog] When design and evaluation overlap in long-term place-based work – Examines how design, evaluation, and facilitation operate as interdependent elements of an ongoing learning architecture in long-term, multi-actor settings. Makes the case that strengthening coherence across these practices is itself a form of rigour in complex, place-based work.
- [Blog] Indicators, judgement, and adaptation: making sense of change in complex settings – Reflects on how indicators actually function in practice, drawing on experience from environmental and place-based programmes. Argues that indicators only become useful through judgement, conversation, and institutional context, and that holding them lightly is essential if they are to support adaptation rather than constrain it.
Related reflections
The posts below explore themes closely connected to evaluation practice, including systems and complexity, shared learning, climate adaptation, rubrics, and ethics. Each touches on evaluative questions from a slightly different angle.
- [Blog] Working between systems and complexity: a practitioner’s guide – Explores how practitioners move between systems thinking and complexity-aware approaches in real-world settings, including evaluation. Offers practical ideas for staying coherent while remaining adaptive, drawing on experience from the Living Water programme and other long-term initiatives.
- [Blog] Supporting shared learning in complex, multi-actor settings – Looks at how collaborations can move beyond information sharing to support shared learning and adaptation. Considers the roles that facilitators, evaluators, and programme teams play in creating the conditions for collective sense-making.
- [Blog] Monitoring, evaluation and learning for climate adaptation – Draws together principles for designing MEL systems that strengthen climate adaptation, grounded in both research and practice experience. Emphasises that MEL is not just a technical requirement but a way of working that values reflection, admits uncertainty, and supports adjustment.
- [Blog] Using rubrics to plan and assess complex tasks and behaviours – Introduces rubrics as tools for reflection and dialogue, not just scoring. Highlights single-point rubrics as particularly well suited to complex, participatory settings where teams need to articulate what “good” looks like and revisit that understanding over time.
- [Blog] Single-point rubrics: supporting reflection and learning in complex settings – Explores how single point rubrics differ from conventional rubrics, why they support adaptive practice, and how they can be used to shape programmes, partnerships, and systems change. Shows how they offer a clear, reflective framework for learning and improvement – especially in complex, collaborative work.
- [Blog] Strengthening ethics in applied and collaborative work – Reflects on how a collaborative peer review protocol developed over time to support ethics in applied research and evaluation work, particularly for independent practitioners working outside formal institutional ethics systems.
- [Blog] Working with care: supporting ethics in research and evaluation – Explores how ethical practice in research and evaluation goes beyond procedural compliance, attending to relationships, power, and the responsibilities that come with working in people’s lives and communities.
- [Blog] Exploring complexity: a thread through recent reflections – A connecting post that draws together threads across several of the reflections listed here, exploring how evaluation, co-design, systems thinking, and participatory research share common foundations when working in complex settings.
For curated tools, frameworks, and guidance on monitoring, evaluation and learning, visit the MEL hub page. Related resource pages include systems thinking, complexity-aware MEL, reflective and reflexive practice, and theory of change.
If you’re working in a similar space and would like to connect around evaluation, facilitation, MEL, or process design, you’re welcome to get in touch. If you’ve found this page helpful, feel free to share it with others who might benefit too. You can also sign up for occasional updates about new tools and resources.
[* Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay]