ABSTRACT
The practice of evaluation has always struggled with boundary issues as well as divergent views on what evaluation is about and what it is not. In this chapter we implicitly take a stand on what we consider to be the common foundations of evaluation. The chapter describes how evaluation has come of age as it has become institutionalized in public policy environments (and beyond) across the globe. The growing number of (national, regional, and global) professional associations, (academic) training programs, dedicated journals, and books testify to this. It discusses aspects of institutionalization of evaluation but also what quality in evaluation looks like from different perspectives. The ongoing trend of professionalization of evaluation will help strengthen the role of evaluation in learning and accountability processes. Common standards and quality assurance mechanisms increasingly apply to a core set of principles, processes, and approaches for evaluation across the globe. At the same time, many aspects of evaluative inquiry cannot and should not be undertaken by professional evaluators alone. Different knowledge funds (around policy interventions, policy fields, methodological innovations, and new ways of using data) that are relevant in the context of evaluative inquiry will require expertise from different types of professionals.
