Developmental Evaluation

The Niche of Developmental Evaluation

The developmental evaluation niche focuses on evaluating innovations in complex dynamic environments because that’s the arena in which social innovators and change agents are working. Innovation as used here is a broad framing that includes creating new approaches to intractable problems, adapting programs to changing conditions, applying effective principles to new contexts (scaling innovation), catalyzing systems change, and improvising rapid responses in crisis conditions. Social innovation unfolds in social systems that are inherently dynamic and complex, and often turbulent. The implication for social innovators is that they typically find themselves having to adapt their interventions in the face of complexity and changing conditions. Funders of social innovation also need to be flexible and adaptive in alignment with the dynamic and uncertain nature of social innovation in complex systems.

[Page 499]Developmental evaluators track, document, and help interpret the nature and implications of innovations and adaptations as they unfold, both the processes and outcomes of innovation, and help extract lessons and insights to inform the ongoing adaptive innovation process. Developmental evaluation brings to innovation and adaptation the processes of asking evaluative questions, applying evaluation logic, and gathering and reporting evaluative data to inform and support the development of innovative projects, programs, initiatives, products, organizations, and/or systems change efforts with timely feedback.

At the same time, this provides accountability for funders and supporters of social innovations and helps them understand and refine their contributions to solutions as they evolve. Social innovators often find themselves dealing with problems, trying out strategies, and striving to achieve goals that emerge from their engagement in the change process, but which they could not have identified before that engagement, and that continue to evolve as a result of what they learn. The developmental evaluator helps identify and make sense of these emergent problems, strategies, and goals as the social innovation develops. The emergent/creative/adaptive interventions generated by social innovators for complex problems are significant enough to constitute developments, not just improvements, thus the need for developmental evaluation.

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