On October 28, 2014, CES President Benoît Gauthier presented a talk on “The Professionalization of Evaluation in Canada” at Forum international francophone de l'évaluation in Dakar, Senegal. His presentation analyzed the institutiionalization of evaluation as a profession in Canada, including major milestones and challenges. Some highlights from his presentation include:

• Professionalization in Canada has been a bottom up approach, led by the Canadian Evaluation Society, including the ongoing development of the Essential Skills Series, the creation of the code of ethics, the adoption of standards and competencies, and the professional designation program
• It has been supported by the creation of the Consortium of Universities for Education in Evaluation (CUEE)
• A preview of an upcoming article by Gauthier and colleagues on the impacts of professionalization vis-a-vis the CES Credentialing Program
• Challenges encountered, such as the difficulty ensuring sufficient training opportunities exist to support obtaining and maintaining competencies, ensuring sufficient numbers evaluation users will seek of credentialed professionals to drive evaluators to obtain the credential (and ensuring sufficient numbers of credentialed evaluators to drive evaluation users to recognize the value of the credential), and appropriately engaging established professionals in formal accreditation.

You can check out his full presentation notes in English and in French.