Towards Sustainable Futures: The Role of Evaluation(Comparative Policy Evaluation)

Towards Sustainable Futures serves as a guide to better understand what roles evaluation can play in sustainability. Rather than proposing a single definition of sustainability or methodological approach, this book gives us the tools to improve the quality and relevance of evaluation of sustainability. Divided into two parts, the first part introduces the reader to key debates and challenges related to evaluation of sustainability. Part Two provides examples of methods and applications. By combining a stellar line up of specialists, theorists, and practitioners in the field of development evaluation with expert, accessible and engaged analysis of key issues, Towards Sustainable Futures is a must-read source for re-tooling and re-focussing evaluation towards the green transition imperative. It should be essential reading for scholars and practitioners of evaluation. Chapters 1, 4, 6 and 15 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction PART 1: From projects to systems and politics 2 Can equity be sustained – and can evaluation find the answer? 3 Evaluation of sustainability in the presence of a goal conflict 4 Understanding and addressing sustainability in evaluation 5 Setting goals and missing them: can evaluations help us meet SDGs? 6 Strategies to manage disaster risks: evaluating their contributions to sustainable development PART 2: Methods and applications 7 Evaluating sustainability through the lens of circular business models 8 Credibility and utility of corporate sustainability reporting 9 A classification algorithm to link official documents to Sustainable Development Goals 10 Evaluation: a road to sustainable welfare 11 Sustainability, systemic change, and theory-based evaluation: lessons from the ‘safe system’ approach in road safety 12 Why we should employ a social practice perspective when we evaluate sustainability 13 Evaluating social sustainability: concepts, approaches and how to apply these to evaluations 14 Re-imagining the role of evaluation in planning for sustainability of gender equity interventions 15 Evaluating sustainability – a multidimensional approach PART 3: Conclusion 16 Conclusions – outlining the roles for evaluation

About the Author :
Per Bastøe is the Evaluation Director at Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the chair of the OECD/DAC Evaluation Network. He has broad experience from international development and evaluation and has previously held senior positions in other parts of the Norwegian government administration, in the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. He is a member of the International Evaluation Research Group and has published several books and articles on development policy, evaluation, and organizational change. Kim Forss holds a PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics. His research has concerned comparative studies of evaluation, the design of inquiring systems and organizational learning, utilization of results, as well as process use of evaluation. He works as an independent researcher out of his firm Andante - tools for thinking AB. Ida Lindkvist is Senior Advisor at the Evaluation Department in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). She holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bergen and her research interest includes the political economy of evaluation and the practice of results based management and results-based financing in aid.

Review :
Followers of the Comparative Policy Evaluation book series will be familiar with the qualities presented in this new volume. A well-managed collection of essays addresses a topical and substantive issue not only for evaluation but public policy in general, tackles sometimes contested conceptual and methodological complexity and, perhaps more distinctively, is oriented to policy and evaluation futures. The authors collectively argue that ensuring sustainability is one of the most important tasks we face. Sustainable development, both economic and social and especially together, is critical to our future. Their volume explores the role of evaluation in contributing to this sustainable future. It speaks to those who share this burgeoning interest, especially those who commission, carry out and use evaluations in public policy. Andrew Gray, Emeritus Professor of Public Management, Durham University Towards sustainable futures indirectly raises the challenge that development, evaluation of development and sustainability of development are concepts intrinsically linked to a growth paradigm. The very notion of cause and effect and development is a notion of growth – and the role of evaluation is to assess whether this growth has actually taken place – and if so – whether it is sustainable. But Towards sustainable futures: the role of evaluation in many ways asks the crucial question, whether growth and development is what we want? The editors hold up a mirror which shows a somewhat bleak reflection: ”… so far the evaluation community at large has not contributed much.” Dr. Claus C. Rebien, Vice President, Green Transition Advisory, COWI.