aes26 International Evaluation Conference: Full Schedule

This is the draft aes26 program, subject to change. To register for workshops and the conference, go to: https://www.aes26.aes.asn.au/

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10:30am ACST

Challenging power through MEL: What can Australian and international development evaluators learn from each other?

Thursday September 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Elisabeth Jackson (Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University), Thushara Dibley Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, Shane D'Angelo Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University)

This roundtable explores MEL as a practice that can challenge existing power structures and strengthen community voices. It aims to promote sharing and learning between evaluators in domestic and international contexts and build new connections between evaluators who share similar approaches and principles.

Across diverse approaches such as culturally responsive and Indigenous evaluation, realist approaches, and place-based methods, practitioners are asking: whose worldview shapes what counts as evidence? While the language used in different sectors varies, there are strong common threads: centring marginalised voices, working collaboratively, reflecting on our own assumptions, and valuing local knowledge.

This session is designed for intermediate to advanced evaluators who are thinking critically about power, partnership, and the politics of evidence. Participants will explore what is common across approaches in domestic and international contexts and how these are creating space for different worldviews and supporting forms of evidence that are meaningful to communities.

After a short framing and brief examples, participants will move into structured small-group discussions to surface shared tensions and practical insights. Prompts will include: What is one way your current evaluation practice may reinforce existing power dynamics? Where have you seen MEL genuinely shift decision-making power? What institutional constraints limit these approaches? Groups will then report back in a facilitated plenary. Participants will be invited to identify one insight they will take back into their own practice and one structural barrier the evaluation field needs to address collectively. Key insights will be shared more broadly through a blog developed after the conference.

The roundtable aligns with the aes26 sub-themes Traditional and New Ways and Ethics and Integrity, inviting participants to reflect on their real-world experience of applying participatory and culturally grounded approaches in different contexts and exploring how these can help disrupt existing power relations.

Speakers

Elisabeth Jackson

Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University - Centre For Human Security and Social Change

Dr Elisabeth Jackson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Human Security and Social Change where she conducts research and evaluation in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She is currently co-leading an impact evaluation of a program working with diverse marginalised groups... Read More →

Thushara Dibley

Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University

Shane D'Angelo

Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University

Thursday September 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Round table
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Community and social services, International development

11:30am ACST

Case studies – an overlooked technique in evaluation?

Thursday September 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm ACST

Waterfront 2

Authors: Alan Woodward, Alan Woodward Consulting, Leanne Kelly, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University
Evaluations of community-based and place-based programs regularly require methods capable of examining context, relationships, and emergent outcomes. While case studies are a long-standing qualitative research approach, they are often under-utilized or misunderstood within evaluation practice. Drawing on the evaluation of Australian Red Cross’ Community Resilience Teams as an applied example, the presentation demonstrates how case study design enabled exploration of contextual dynamics, stakeholder perspectives, and underlying mechanisms that would not have been visible through survey or indicator-driven approaches alone. Participants will be offered practical guidance on when case studies are suitable and considerations for conducting case study activities.

Speakers

Alan Woodward

Principal, Alan Woodward Consulting

My evaluation experience is broad, ranging from the conduct of evaluations of programs and services, the commissioning of evaluations, the engagement of communities on evaluation activities, the design of evaluation strategies and capacity building within organisations. I work in... Read More →

Leanne Kelly

Thursday September 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm ACST
Waterfront 2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Short paper
Audience Level Advanced, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Public administration and safety, International development, Health and disability, Not for profit Philanthropy
ID 57

12:00pm ACST

Embedding Ethical Practice in an Evaluation Across Diverse Communities: Lessons from Bangladesh

Thursday September 17, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm ACST

Waterfront 1

Authors: Maud Mukova-Moses, Fred Hollows Foundation, A K M Badrul, Huq Fred Hollows Foundation, Jagath Happuhannadige, Fred Hollows Foundation
Reflecting on a predominantly qualitative evaluation, this paper explores how internally led evaluation can strengthen ethical practice, integrity, and inclusion in complex program settings. Drawing on The Fred Hollows Foundation’s mid-term evaluation of a Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) eye health project in Bangladesh, the paper examines how the evaluation navigated ethical practice in a context where power imbalances and language differences influenced whose voices were heard.

The evaluation engaged diverse groups, including ethnic minority communities and persons with disabilities. This raised practical ethical questions about language access, interpretation, voice and power. In navigating these complexities, the evaluation sought to incorporate equity, cultural sensitivity, and power-awareness to create space for diverse voices, reveal hidden barriers, and enable more ethical decision-making. Through use of document review, interviews, focus groups and a partner validation workshop, the evaluation intentionally foregrounded lived experience while maintaining analytical independence.

The paper demonstrates that ethical evaluation is not only about safeguarding participants, but also about how evaluators navigate competing priorities, institutional constraints, and contextual power dynamics. By conducting the evaluation internally, the team was able to deepen its understanding of gender, disability, and ethnic inclusion dynamics; build trust with community stakeholders; and generate insights that may have remained invisible.

The paper also explores tensions encountered during validation and interpretation: What does ethical evaluation look like when stakeholder priorities differ? How can evaluators recognise and address power dynamics within interviews, focus groups, and validation workshops? And how can evaluators transparently acknowledge limitations in ways that strengthen trust and learning? By sharing practical strategies and reflective insights, evaluators are invited to move beyond procedural compliance towards a deeper practice of relational accountability and integrity across diverse contexts. The paper offers practical examples of embedding ethical considerations into internal evaluation and using findings to inform practice improvement.

Speakers

Jagath Happuhannadige

Senior Program Quality Advisor, Fred Hollows Foundation

Maud Mukova-Moses

Fred Hollows Foundation

A K M Badrul Huq

Senior Program Manager - Bangladesh, The Fred Hollows Foundation

I am a development professional with approximately 16 years of experience, including eight years of engagement in evaluation-related work. My professional expertise includes monitoring and evaluation, disability inclusion, health program development, strategic planning, and evidence-informed... Read More →

Thursday September 17, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm ACST
Waterfront 1 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Short paper
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry International development
ID 98

1:30pm ACST

Making Space for multiple perspectives: Collaborative design of Value for Investment evaluations

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm ACST

Waterfront 2

Author: Adrian Field, Dovetail Consulting
Value for Investment (VfI) is an emerging evaluation system that is gaining increasing traction internationally. The system is intentionally mixed methods, interdisciplinary and collaborative.
It is this collaborative positioning of VfI that this presentation is focused. In VfI framing, value draws from multiple perspectives of what makes a programme, intervention or policy valuable. Therefore, understanding and capturing value requires a fundamentally collaborative mindset, one that reaches beyond existing data sources and reporting, to explore from many different perspectives what it is that fundamentally matters about the intervention that is the evaluation’s focus.

This presentation draws on learning and approaches in exploring value through participatory design techniques. It will draw on approaches developed and refined across a range of VfI evaluations, in the health, mental health, justice, urban development, transport and creative sectors.
The session will describe a range of facilitative techniques adopted to draw on different stakeholders perspectives on value, and the strengths that they offer for building robust, relevant and actionable evaluations.

Using a VfI lens allied with participatory design techniques, the presentation will explore how value can be brought to life across key evaluation questions, theories of change and value propositions, evaluative rubrics, and collaborative sense-making.

Session participants will gain a clear sense of the possibilities and potential for applying participatory approaches in VfI, and the strengths these offer for evaluation practice.

Speakers

Adrian Field

Director, Dovetail Consulting

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm ACST
Waterfront 2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Short paper
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry International development, Community and social services, Arts and recreation services, Health and disability

1:30pm ACST

Process tracing in practice: testing causal claims with mixed evidence

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm ACST

Rooms 3+4

Author: Kizzy Gandy, Jacaranda Partners

Learning objective: Participants will be able to construct core and alternative hypotheses from a theory of change, design evidence tests to distinguish between them and make defensible causal claims.

Contribution analysis is now widely used in Australian evaluation practice, but many evaluators stop short of the next step: systematically testing whether something other than the program explains the observed outcomes. Process tracing does exactly this. It raises the rigour of causal claims not by collecting more data, but by being more deliberate about what the data needs to show — and what it would need to show if the alternative explanation were true instead.

This workshop uses a real evaluation of the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project as a case study. The Embrace evaluation combined contribution analysis and process tracing with a mixed-method design including a quasi-experimental quantitative survey and qualitative interviews. It produced a result that many evaluations encounter but few handle well: the quantitative analysis found the program had no detectable effect on key outcomes, yet qualitative evidence suggested it was working. Process tracing provided the analytical framework to distinguish between three plausible explanations — the program failed, the effects take time to materialise, or competing programs are producing the same outcomes.

Participants work through three structured exercises: translating a theory of change into core and alternative hypotheses; designing evidence tests that can distinguish between them; and applying evaluator judgement to weight mixed evidence and reach a defensible conclusion. Each exercise uses the Embrace case, with reflection prompts connecting the method to participants' own evaluations.

The workshop is aimed at intermediate to advanced evaluators working on complex programs.

Speakers

Kizzy Gandy

Jacaranda Partners

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm ACST
Rooms 3+4 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Roots and routes

Format Skill building
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Community and social services, Education and training, International development, Health and disability, Economic development tourism and infrastructure
ID 79

1:30pm ACST

Establishing an Indigenous owned and led evaluation process for the Timor-Leste Tais Weaving Ecosystem

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm ACST

Waterfront 1

Authors: Nea Harrison, Pandanus Evaluation, Maria do Céu Lopes da Silva

This presentation shares the journey by Timor-Aid and members of the Tais Weavers Network to develop an Indigenous evaluation process that supports intergenerational transmission of knowledge across Timor-Leste.

The process of building evaluation skills and planning is beginning in Oé-cusse and will extend to other municipalities, enabling the 1,625 Weavers’ Network members to take charge of evaluating the National Tais Weaving Ecosystem themselves.

Tais is an intricate and beautiful fabric that is deeply embedded in Timorese culture. It is a symbol of identity and heritage and is used in traditional ceremonies and celebrations. Weaving Tais is a sacred process that has been passed down from generation to generation. UNESCO recognised Timor – Leste Tais as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in urgent need of safeguarding in 2021.

This participatory and developmental evaluation work helps preserve this precious tradition. It is supported by an Asia Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA) and EvalIndigenous seeding grant provided to promote culturally responsive, Indigenous-led evaluation practices across the region.

The interactive presentation will share our work so far to:

- build local evaluation knowledge and skills;

- develop locally owned and led, equitable, and inclusive evaluation plans that acknowledge the social, cultural and governance practices of Indigenous Timorese peoples;

- develop Indigenous evaluation data collection and information sharing resources that showcase the evaluation learnings, celebrate and build awareness of the importance Tais to Timor Leste people’s cultural traditions, values and languages;

-coach and mentor young weavers and Timor Aid staff to build their confidence and leadership skills to lead ongoing evaluation activities.

The audience will have the opportunity to explore some of these evaluation strategies. They will engage in an interactive discussion about the importance of inclusive evaluation strategies that build on local knowledge and skills and promote Timor-Leste’s cultural traditions, values, and languages.

Speakers

Nea Harrison

Director, Pandanus Evaluation

I have been an evaluator and member of the AES for over 20 years. I live in Darwin and work in Australian and international evaluation spaces. I support government, non-government, First Nations, multilateral and community agencies to develop responsive, practical and rigorous MEL... Read More →

Maria do Céu Lopes da Silva

Master Weaver

Thursday September 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm ACST
Waterfront 1 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Long paper
Industry Arts and recreation services, Environment and climate change, Education and training, Economic development tourism and infrastructure, International development
ID 222

3:30pm ACST

Is this going somewhere? Using evaluations to broker organisational change

Thursday September 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Author: Victoria Pilbeam (SPC), India Lynn (SPC)

How many robust evaluations get left on shelves? What can we do when good evaluations are overlooked? The true value of evaluative practice lies not in the reports or their recommendations, but what comes after, how we use them to broker organisational change is the route to success.
To ground these questions, our session will use a case study on capability development – a fundamental part of our work at the Pacific Community (SPC) Fisheries Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems division. At SPC, our scientists and technical staff travel across the Pacific delivering training on a wide range of topics with the goal of enhancing the sustainable management and economic, food security, and cultural benefits of Pacific fisheries. Our capability development aims to achieve change on the ground, in the ministries, communities and industries of our member countries and territories. But successive evaluations have told us that, despite all this training, we are not necessarily seeing the desired results and that we need to explore different modalities to bring about true capability strengthening.
So, how did we dust off these evaluations and use them to chart a new pathway to impact? In this session, we will discuss how we used a combination of behaviour change research, co-design, and organisational change management to move the dial using existing reviews. This approach is rooted in theoretical, cultural and contextual considerations, including behaviour change models and Pacific pedagogies. Our paper will illustrate how taking a grounded approach can make evaluation relevant and learning strategic. Whilst, inviting participants to reflect on their own experiences and their roles in shepherding evaluations from good recommendations towards genuine organisational change.

Speakers

Victoria Pilbeam

MEL Adviser, Pacific Community | Communauté du Pacifique

At the Pacific Community, I support MEL for fisheries, aquaculture and marine ecosystems across the Pacific Islands region. Previously, I worked for WWF-Australia and in consulting with a range of not-for profit, government , and philanthropic partners. I like MEL that is approachable... Read More →

India Lynn

MEL Officer, Pacific Community | Communauté du Pacifique

Thursday September 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Roots and routes

Format Short paper
Industry Natural resources and energy, Education and training, International development
ID 154

4:00pm ACST

Quality evaluation that makes a difference: continuing the conversation

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST

Rooms 3+4

Author: Carina Calzoni, AES Rob Sale, nous

The AES has been exploring its vision of “quality evaluation that makes a difference” through a strategic project - engaging members and examining evaluation theory and practice. This work has surfaced a central challenge: while the phrase is compelling, its meaning is complex, contested, and shaped by context.

This roundtable begins from that complexity—but does not seek to resolve it. Instead, it focuses on what comes next.
We will briefly share insights from the journey so far, including the multiple dimensions of “evaluation”, “quality”, and “making a difference”. These span tensions between evaluation as process, product, and profession; competing perspectives on quality (e.g. standards, utility, impact, values); and diverse understandings of use and influence across contexts and stakeholders.

The primary purpose of the session is to co-design how this conversation continues across the AES community. Participants will engage in facilitated small-group discussions to explore key questions: What does quality evaluation mean in your context? Who defines it? What does “making a difference” look like—and for whom? How should these conversations evolve as contexts, practice, and membership change?

Participants will then work together to identify practical ways to sustain and deepen engagement, such as ongoing communities of practice, publications, podcasts, or future conference formats. The session will capture and share these ideas to inform AES’s ongoing work.

Designed for intermediate to advanced evaluators, this roundtable creates space for collective reflection and future-oriented dialogue. By centring plurality and participation, it supports the AES vision by keeping the conversation alive—recognising that what constitutes “quality evaluation that makes a difference” must continue to evolve with the field.

Speakers

Rob Sale

Nous

Carina Calzoni

AES

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Rooms 3+4 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Boundaries and bridges

Format Round table
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Arts and recreation services, Economic development tourism and infrastructure, Community and social services, Education and training, Environment and climate change, Health and disability, Information media and telecommunications, International development, Natur
ID 266

4:00pm ACST

Looking upstream and downstream: longitudinal case studies of climate and water resilience

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST

Waterfront 3

Authors: Stuart Raetz, Climate Resilient Communities, Primatia Romana Wulandari, Alinea International
This panel will explore and contrast Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) insights from two Australian international development investments undertaking evaluative longitudinal case studies that aim to monitor changes in community and institutional resilience over an extended period: The Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and Climate Resilient Communities (CRC). AWP are retrospectively studying 10 years of water governance investments (2015–2025), while CRC are undertaking evaluative case studies of how communities are adapting to climate change in five countries (Kiribati, Tonga, Fiji, Cambodia and Timor-Leste) in the Indo Pacific (2026 – 2029).

Drawing on emerging insights, evidence and learnings from these two programs the session will explore the enabling conditions that support community and institutional resilience in a changing climate.

The panel will discuss how:

1.Different vantage points reveal different resilience dynamics. AWP’s retrospective longitudinal analysis uncovers patterns of institutional strengthening, governance adaptation, and enabling conditions that only emerge over time, while CRC’s evaluative case studies will illuminate how climate resilience is context specific and driven by locally led adaptation practices.

2.Complementary methodologies strengthen evaluative insight. Both programs use participatory, outcome oriented, and complexity sensitive approaches—providing methodological alignment while generating distinct, mutually reinforcing evidence streams.

3.Integrated evidence supports better climate informed programming. When institutional governance evidence is paired with forward looking community insights, development programs gain stronger foundations for policy engagement, climate integration, and long-term investment planning.

The panel will provide illustrative examples from programming to contrast retrospective and forward-looking approaches to longitudinal case studies.

Audience interaction will be promoted through short provocations and facilitated reflection that will elicit insights from the audience. The panel will support a practical understanding of the challenges and opportunities in monitoring and evaluating resilience and stimulate discussion on how MEL can help programs to navigate complexity in a changing climate.

Speakers

Stuart Raetz

Monitoring, Evaluation And Learning Lead, Climate Resilient Communities

Primatia Romana Wulandari

Senior Consultant, Alinea International

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Waterfront 3 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Roots and routes

Format Panel
Audience Level Intermediate
Industry Environment and climate change, International development, Natural resources and energy
ID 210

4:00pm ACST

Meeting new challenges with better theories of change

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST

Hall 2

Authors: Patricia Rogers, Footprint Evaluation Initiative, Emil Laurberg Morgensen, University of Southern Denmark
Theories of change are now commonly used to design initiatives, including projects, programs and policies, and to shape monitoring and evaluation. But 40 years after first being showcased at an AES conference, these are often developed and used in ways that don’t fit what is needed, especially to support adaptation across different settings and in changing contexts. This session will present common mistakes, what they are, why they matter, and examples of better strategies. Participants will engage with exercises to identify issues, try out strategies and explore possible applications in their own work and in shaping organisational requirements and procedures.

Speakers

Patricia Rogers

Co-founder, Footprint Evaluation Initiative

Founder of BetterEvaluation and former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation at RMIT University. Now working as consultant and advisor. My work has focused on supporting appropriate choice and use of evaluation methods and approaches to suit purposes and context. I am currently working... Read More →

Emil Laurberg Mogensen

Odense University Hospital, Department Of Clinical Research, University Of Southern Denmark

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Hall 2

Traditional and new ways

Format Skill building
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Education and training, Natural resources and energy, Community and social services, International development, Health and disability
ID 307

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