DOI
10.9707/1944-5660.1712
Key Points
Facing the great scale of societal challenges, philanthropic organizations are increasingly calling for systems change. Evaluating systems change requires innovative approaches that respond to the complexities of such change in ways that support equity and multiracial democracy rather than undermining them.
A key concern in evaluating systems change is how to do so rigorously. Rigor has traditionally been equated with evaluative criteria such as independence and objectivity, and experimental methods and evidence hierarchies which sit uncomfortably with both complexity and equity. Yet when taking an alternative approach, many philanthropic organizations fear that without these standards, there are no standards at all.
Establishing means to assess evidence standards is a key challenge for complexity- informed evaluation. This article argues that more appropriate, flexible, and inclusive standards for assessing evidence quality in systems-change efforts are achievable. Based on a review of evidence standards, learning from the causal pathways and inclusive rigor networks, and using the example of evaluation of the CLARISSA program, it lays out a set of principles and tools to guide assessment by philanthropic organizations of evidence quality in systems-change evaluation.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Apgar, M., Aston, T., Snijder, M., & Zwollo, T. (2024). Raising the Bar: Improving How to Assess Evidence Quality in Evaluating Systems-Change Efforts. The Foundation Review, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.9707/1944-5660.1712
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