Позитивные изменения, Том 3 №1, 2023. Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 1 (2023)
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The topic of professionalizing project and program evaluation (in the social sphere, culture, science, environment, etc.) has been on the agenda of international organizations for more than a dozen years, or about ten years in the Russian practice. There are numerous publications and discussions between evaluation specialists talking about the status of evaluation as a profession at the regional and international level. In our country, this topic is addressed at the annual conferences of the Association of Specialists in Program and Policy Evaluation (ASPPE or ASOPP). So is project and program evaluation a profession, and if so, how can we find out and tell?
Yulia Vyatkina
Editor, Positive Changes Journal
Before we start talking about the professionalization of evaluation (referring specifically to evaluation of projects and programs), let us consider how an occupation becomes a profession.
Harold Wilensky, an American sociologist who studied the functioning of various organizational structures in the modern society, proposed in the 1960s a model describing the formation of a profession in several stages [15] .
15
Wilensky, L. (1964). The professionalization of everyone? American Journal of Sociology, 70(2), 137–158. Ayoo, S., Wilcox, Y., LaVelle, J. M., Podems, D., & Barrington, G. V. (2020). Grounding the 2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies in the broader context of professionalization. In J. A King (Ed.), The American Evaluation Association’s Program Evaluator Competencies. New Directions for Evaluation, 2020, 13 30.
The process starts with a certain occupation acquiring full-time status. That is, with enough people engaged in some kind of activity from morning till night and making a living off of it. Full-time employment is the mandatory starting point, otherwise the occupation cannot turn into a profession. In addition, it is possible when there is a demand for services.
The second stage is the emergence of a school of professional training for the people engaged in this type of activity. Schools like this are often associated with universities. The next step is a professional association – an association of people engaged in this activity on a permanent basis. The association takes actions forcing the state to adopt certain regulations establishing the procedure for licensing and certifying activities, thus establishing a kind of professional monopoly. Also, the professional association affects the professional training of specialists, promoting the development of a theory, methods, strategies of activity and competences of the specialists.
Next, a code of ethics is developed, which helps prevent abuse of authority and power. Self-regulated professional associations demonstrate to the public that they control the code of ethics.
The final step is the formation of a positive image in the society. When you have established an image, you can say that you have a new profession.
There are two approaches to defining a profession. In the first case, it is defined as an activity, an occupation, a job. In the second, as a group of people.
A profession as an activity is a paid job, especially one that involves lengthy training and formal qualifications. Accordingly, a professional is a person who has undergone such training, received confirmation of his/her qualifications and is engaged in that job.
Caroline Heider, former Director General and Senior Vice President, Evaluation, World Bank Group, highlights the key features of established professions [16] :
• There is an established stream through the tertiary education system that each member of the profession has to complete, and some professions require regular training to update knowledge and skills;
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Heider, C. Professionalizing Evaluation. 28.04.2015. The World Bank Group. Retrieved from:evaluation. (accessed 01.03.2023).
• The profession requires that new graduates practice in close collaboration and under the supervision of more experienced practitioners;
• There are strong, recognized professional associations that enforce and reinforce standards;
• Legislation is in place that sets out requirements and provides the basis for legal recourse in the case of malpractice.
We decided to do a little research of our own and turned to experts who have been working in evaluation for quite a long time. Our speakers responded that it is too early to call evaluation a mature profession yet. By the way, its degree of maturity varies from country to country.
“I think it is a profession in its nascent stages. There are many signs indicating this. If you look at the percentage of those who graduated from higher education institutions and majored in
It’s always worth remembering that when we talk about a profession, we have to understand that it has to have a number of attributes. Some of these are present in Russia, some are not, says Irina Efremova-Garth, First Deputy Director of the Donors Forum.
One of the key signs of professionalization of an activity is the self-organization of the related community. For example, in Russia we have the Association of Specialists in Program and Policy Evaluation (ASPPE or ASOPP), established in 2014 with the mission to develop and promote evaluation as a profession. The Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center and the Garant Center of Social Technologies hold summer schools on evaluation; the PROOCENKU Club has been working actively, with the colleagues actively sharing their experiences and lessons learned during its meetings. An equally important attribute of professionalization is the existence of principles and standards formulated by the specialist community. In Russia, as in other countries where professional associations operate, these principles have been developed and adopted by the ASPPE [17] . Their distinctive feature is that each of the six principles contains recommendations not only for evaluators, but also for the clients and the participants of the evaluation process. Another sign of professionalization is the certification system, wherein a specialist in the field of evaluation would receive official confirmation of his/her experience and knowledge. There is no certification of evaluators in our country; at the same time, it does not exist in many countries of the world either, with the exception of Canada and Japan.
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ASPPE. (2017). ASPPE Principles of Program and Policy Evaluation. Retrieved from:(accessed: 01.03.2023).
The list of signs can also include growing interest of universities in the professional training of evaluation specialists: for example, Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University has launched a Master’s degree program “Evidence-Based Design and Evaluation of Programs in the Field of Social Risk Management in Childhood”. One of the factors contributing to the development of evaluation in Russia was the strategic audit organized and conducted by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. It is carried out to assess the feasibility, risks and results of achieving strategic goals, as well as the impact of external and internal factors on the progress towards these strategic goals.
“All these facts serve as an evidence that evaluation is developing as a profession,” Irina Efremova-Garth summarizes.
Elena Malitskaya, president of the Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center (SCISC) notes that there is a growing demand from the state for specialists in evaluation in the country. “However, this demand is quite narrow – for a specific type of evaluation only, related to a review of applications, projects and programs,” Elena Malitskaya says.