We were delighted when Ravinder Kumar joined us for the ‘Food for Thought’ lunchtime talk series last year to give his talk:  ‘The making of a new age Evaluator: how evaluations can be conceptualised and practiced’.

In this talk Ravinder Kumar discusses implications for current evaluation practice if its purpose is to bring about social change, improve decision making, resource allocations and accountability at all levels. It seems that evaluations have only partially served society with these functions, as evidenced by data stating that about two third of evaluations are failed or flawed evaluations in last 50 years of development co-operation[1]. The talk will invite discussions on how evaluators need to understand their multi-faceted role while operating within ethical and other boundaries, stressing the need for the evaluator to remain independent (even in an internal evaluation situation) and exercise her power and authority in a highly responsible way. Doing this requires evaluator to overcome challenges that come from within and from commissioners, recipients or users of evaluations. The talk assumes significance in the International Year of Evaluation 2015 when the roles that evaluators imbibe and perform will also be a critical factor in shaping evaluation policies and cultures.

[1] Based on several studies by EC and other organisations; quoted by Lanre Rotimi, Director General, International Society for Poverty Elimination.

A recording of Ravinder’s talk along with associated powerpoint presentation can be found below.

Recording of the talk

Slides from talk

Ravinder Kumar is an experienced Researcher and Evaluator in Agriculture, Value chains and Livelihoods at the University of Greenwich. He is a facilitator in building and implementing monitoring and evaluation /management information systems. He has also worked as an implementer in Rural Livelihoods, Natural Resource Management, Climate Adaptation and Local Economic Development projects in India (before joining the Natural Resources Institute in UK in 2013). Prior to joining the University of Greenwich, Ravinder Kumar has worked with TechnoServe India (Associate Program Director), Vrutti (Director), Catalyst Management Services (Regional Manager and M&E Unit Head), AC Nielsen ORG MARG (Sr. Research Executive) and Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-operative Ltd. (Monitoring and Impact Assessment Specialist).