Meta-evaluation: Validating program evaluation standards through the United Nations Evaluation Quality Assessment (EQAs)
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X231220979 |
| Author | Sandra Ayoo,Meghan Leeming,Stacy R Huff |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
Academic Article
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2024, Vol. 24(1) 14–39
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X231220979
journals.sagepub.com/home/evj
Meta-evaluation: Validating
program evaluation standards
through the United Nations
Evaluation Quality
Assessment (EQAs)
Sandra Ayoo, Meghan Leeming and Stacy R Huff
University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA
Abstract
The 2015 United Nation’s‘Eval Year’declaration heightened program evaluation’s
significance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, uncertainties
persist regarding evaluating high-quality evaluations and addressing social justice
concerns in meta-evaluations. The field lacks consensus on both conducting meta-
evaluation and the standards to use. To address this, we reviewed meta-evaluation
literature, mapped the American Evaluation Association’s foundational documents with
the United Nations Evaluation Group’s Norms and Standards to explore their in-
tersectionality on social justice, and analysed 62 United Nations Population Fund
evaluation reports alongside their management responses. Our findings indicate that
addressing social justice concerns in meta-evaluation is contingent on context rather
than established standards. Thus, it’s crucial for evaluators to prioritise social justice in
evaluation design and implementation, and to select quality assurance tools that match
the evaluation context and professional association guidelines, especially in the absence
of standardised guidelines.
Corresponding author:
Sandra Ayoo, School of Education Building, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Room 246,
1300 Spring Garden Street, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA.
Email: sjayoo@uncg.edu
Keywords
meta-evaluation, program evaluation standards, quality assessment, quality assurance,
social justice
What we already know
·The field of evaluation is confronted with major concerns regarding the
demand for high-quality evaluations and the centrality of social justice
in the absence of a consensus on standardised guidelines.
·There are no one-size-fits-all guidelines for meta-evaluation and for
addressing social justice in evaluations.
The original contribution the article makes to theory and/
or practice
·Meta-evaluation practices and social justice concerns in evaluation are
contextual, rather than based on standardised guidelines in the field.
·The UN Evaluation Group’s intentional inclusion of gender and human
rights in evaluation ensured that these concerns were integrated into the
evaluation design, methodology, recommendations, and management
response.
·Evaluators should prioritise quality assurance and social justice in
evaluation design and implementation, using tools that fit the evaluation
context.
·Further research is needed to develop a common language and
definition of ‘high-quality’evaluation and criteria for conducting
meta-evaluation in the field.
Introduction
Background
TheUnited Nations (UN) made a historic declaration tha t 2015 was the international
year of evaluation or what is commonly referred to as ‘EvalYear 2015’
(International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation, nd). This declaration
came at a time when the Millennium Development Goals ended and were replaced
by the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN’s historic declaration that made
program evaluation visible to the world is important for making a huge global
Ayoo et al. 15
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