In recent years, the evaluation field has become acutely focused on the importance of incorporating social justice and social transformation practices into every stage of an evaluation. “Our evaluations need to include the principle of social justice, which promotes access, participation, equity, harmony, and cultural diversity,“ says Margie Roper, Khulisa‘s Director for Education and Development. “We need to take social transformation seriously, including it in our design, in our data collection methods, in our analysis, and in our feedback – ensuring that the findings are relevant and meaningful.“
Margie notes specifically that “we mustn’t just pay lip service“ to social justice considerations in the sampling stage or other phases of an evaluation. “We really need to make sure that we are conscious of potential biases in our evaluation tools and analysis, where we’re really trying to use evaluations themselves to foster equitable outcomes.“
For example, if a survey is designed to include youth between the ages of 18 and 25, it‘s essential to consider equitable strategies for reaching a diverse group of youth and making sure they are comfortable and able to participate. “How are you actually going to reach them?“ says Margie. “Are you going to go to universities only, or are you going to go to soccer matches, for example?“ Asking questions like this, before designing surveys or conducting data collection, will help evaluators to avoid excluding the very voices they mean to include.
For more on how to consider social justice and transformation when designing and conducting evaluations, check out these helpful guidelines from the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA).