This article describes the systematic examination and membership consultation process undertaken to define evaluation within the Canadian context. To that end, the article (a) presents the findings from a literature scan and analysis of social media postings, (b) considers the outcomes of the audience discussion during the presentation at the 2013 Canadian Evaluation Society conference, and (c) offers ideas for next steps. Together, the literature scan results, social media analysis, and membership discussion reveal that no single definition currently exists. Further, there are indications that a shared definition would be difficult to achieve within the Canadian evaluation community. Among the potential implications discussed is that a single definition might restrict or oversimplify the current scope of practice, given the wide range of contexts and purposes for evaluation in Canada.
The development of organizational evaluation capacity has emerged in recent years as one mechanism through which evaluators can extend their influence and foster evaluation utilization. However, organizational evaluation capacity is not always easy to define, and internal evaluators sometimes struggle with the identification of concrete activities that might increase their organization’s evaluation capacity. This article describes an organizational self-assessment instrument developed for Canadian federal government organizations. The instrument is presented and described, and further details regarding its use and next steps for this area of evaluation research are also provided.
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