Jul 29, 2026
Evaluators have effects on the projects they evaluate, as I discussed in a recent post. We can also affect each other, within our evaluation teams. But can we do so without reinforcing top-down, neocolonialist aid patterns? Can we genuinely learn from each other, when...
Nov 5, 2025
Note: This blog post originally appeared on the EvalCommunity website at this link. With many thanks to the EvalCommunity team for choosing my blog for publication! I loved their formatting and how they highlighted pieces of the post. Objectivity is a mirage: when...
Jul 4, 2025
What is measured is changed. Some attribute this statement to Einstein, others to Peter Drucker or Karl Pearson, but whoever said it, it makes intuitive sense. Just by observing something, your presence affects that thing. Say a parent monitors their child’s grades....
Apr 25, 2025
This post on language in international development evaluation is one way I’m trying to stay sane and productive since the end of USAID. (Still hurts to type that. The end of USAID. Painful and surreal.) Anyway, it’s not as long as my last post (sorry, not...
Apr 21, 2025
If you’re reading a lot of LinkedIn right now, as I am, you might think a rethink is in order. You’d be in good company. Lauren Kaplan’s LinkedIn post titled “Rethinking Foreign Aid in Africa: Between Dependency and Development” asks a pressing question:...
Sep 15, 2023
…and back to Monrovia. My first blog posts (#1 and #2) were born in this country on the West Coast of Africa, over a dozen years ago. This time, in 2023, I was not looking forward to traveling to Monrovia. I’d just reunited with Ramon and I was not all...
