25 - Systems Informed Empowerment Evaluation (SIEE): An Integrative, Theory-Based Approach to Adapting Evaluation Practice to Context

Abstract Information: To propel the power of evaluation to focus on the story of the evaluand, we need to challenge evaluators to go beyond their evaluative work and commit to equity and justice. Theoretical frameworks are crucial for guiding the evaluation process; however, extant theories have been developed for a specific context and are rarely revised in response to scientific, political, and structural change. Thus, it is incumbent to empower evaluators to critically review existing frameworks, and to tailor theories that increase an evaluator’s ability to provide culturally responsive, rigorous, and actionable recommendations. Systems-Informed Empowerment Evaluation (SIEE) is a theory-based, ecological framework that centers the priorities of community-stakeholders in the pursuit of social, economic, and environmental justice. As an approach to multi-site program evaluation, SIEE situates “the program” within a landscape of intersecting systemic dynamics. This ensures a broad, but relevant, understanding of a program’s context that enables the evaluator to remain responsive. This workshop will highlight the need for adaptive evaluative methods and community inclusion in evaluation. This work draws on the SIEE framework and its key elements from Empowerment Evaluation, Systems Evaluation, and Transformative Evaluation as a pathway to knowing that leads to positive social change. As a result, participants will understand how SIEE inherits the ability to complement any evaluation approach by nurturing aspects of self-determination necessary to propel community-stakeholder empowerment, embracing iteration throughout the project cycle to ensure utility, and centering the lived experiences of the minoritized as drivers of knowing. This workshop is designed for individuals new to conducting evaluations responsive to the needs of communities, interested in learning the basics of community-engaged evaluation and related theories, or interested in participating in a collaborative environment designed to advance community-stakeholder empowerment within the field of evaluation as a whole.

Relevance Statement: This session will be informed by an emerging framework, Systems-Informed Empowerment Evaluation (SIEE), a theory-based, ecological framework that centers the priorities of community-stakeholders in the pursuit of social, economic, and environmental justice. 

Story supports relationality. Similarly, the theoretical foundation of SIEE embraces the idea that stories of our lives are whole concepts, and accordingly, must be understood holistically. As such, SIEE positions evaluation as a set of processes that respond to the dynamic context of “the program”, including the political and material realities of those who influence and are influenced by the program. Informed by Systems Evaluation, Empowerment Evaluation, and Transformative Evaluation, SIEE is both concerned with a context-responsive evaluation plan that centers the priorities of key program stakeholders and the capacity of program stakeholders to sustainably lead and conduct in-house evaluations. 

This framework contextualizes the program within multiple, interconnected layers of context – organizational networks, environmental stimuli, geographic boundaries, and ideological narratives – which provides a comprehensive understanding of the influencing factors in the program's environment. 

The fabric of evaluation is woven together by stories – the stories of individuals and communities. The complex systems that we inhabit comprise a larger story that we all belong to, which can be understood through a framework that is based in both systems-thinking and systems-understanding that empowers people to see themselves within systems, and with the power to change systems. 

This workshop is an opportunity to explore the benefits and challenges of melding systems thinking and empowerment practice to build an evaluation that is equipped to respond to cultural, political, and structural complexity whilst nurturing the principle of self-determination to facilitate community empowerment.