The 19th Event of the Vienna Evaluation Network took place on Tuesday, 28 September 2021, 4-5.30pm CET

Topic: Evaluations in Times of Covid-19. Implications, Consequences and Lessons Learnt
by guest speaker Karin Kohlweg

View or download the slides (PDF) here

During 2020 and 2021, Covid-19 has not only impacted our lives on an individual, but also at an institutional and societal level in general. Evaluation units, departments and evaluation consultants were no exceptions to this. Planned evaluations and evaluation approaches came to a short “standstill” and needed to be adapted and modified.

Not being able to travel, visiting institutions and individuals had great effects on established evaluation practices and caused methodological challenges. Therefore, evaluation concepts were revised, new guidance notes developed, TOR adapted for these special circumstances, new evaluation methods tested, and a variety of initiatives were launched.

Overall, evaluation commissioners and evaluators faced a variety of organizational, managerial, methodological, technological, and logistical challenges.

The presentation discussed these challenges and offered insights into different approaches, solutions, and possible consequences for the near future.

Karin Kohlweg is the founder of pme Kohlweg Consulting, http://www.pmekohlweg.com/, based in Vienna and is currently, the Secretary General of the European Evaluation Society (EES). She is a monitoring and evaluation specialist with more than 15 years of experience in development. She has planned, managed, and implemented different types of evaluations, studies, reviews, and meta-analysis. Karin worked for UNICEF 2 years in Nepal and more than 5 years in Bangladesh and was also, the Head of Evaluation at ADA for many years. She is also a lecturer at different universities and a trainer for theory of change, monitoring and evaluation. She holds one Master Degree in “Social Development Planning and Management” from the University of Swansea, UK and one in “Cultural and Social Anthropology” from the University of Vienna. Karin is also a certified adult education trainer and a gender audit facilitator.