Every Practitioner a “Knowledge Worker”: Promoting Evaluative Thinking to Enhance Learning and Adaptive Management in International Development

Abstract

AbstractInternational community development involves complex, dynamic processes. Evaluation capacity building (ECB) designed to promote evaluative thinking among community development practitioners can foster more complexity‐aware monitoring and evaluation for learning and adaptive management. Instead of simply executing technical processes based on predetermined plans, development practitioners can be “knowledge workers” who use evaluative thinking to promote collaboration, learning, and adaptation. In this chapter, framed in the context of the United States Agency for International Development's ongoing efforts to become a more effective learning organization, we describe one such ECB initiative implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The chapter provides reflections on a practical application and empirical grounding of theoretical concepts related to complexity‐aware and learning‐focused evaluation.