Innovations and partnerships in evaluations are critical to address the complex socio-environmental issues we all face. Also, the inter-connectedness and inter-dependence of the SDGs have challenged the evaluation community to move away from silo-like project evaluations to address how projects and programmes impact people, the environment and other sectors in planned and unexpected ways. To do so, we need evaluation approaches and methodologies that address such complex interactions. Although technocratic approaches to evaluation are important to bring rigour and evidence to the evaluation, the complex and diverse peoples and contexts we work in South Asia demands that we address not only ‘what works’ but also whether the project or programme has led to equitable social change.
