aes26 International Evaluation Conference: Full Schedule

Presenter and chair information page, resources for conference presenters, authors and session chairs.

11:00am ACST

Measuring what matters: Culturally responsive evaluation of a statewide ECEC strategy

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST

Authors: Phillip Belling, NSW Department Of Education Jessica de Jesus, NSW Department Of Education, Rowan Savage, Aboriginal Education & Communities, NSW Department of Education

Presenter note: Rowan has been an important contributor to this work and was originally hoped to join the presentation in person. As the opportunity to present at aes26 was only confirmed in the past two days, the short timeframe unfortunately made it difficult to arrange for him to travel to Garrmalang | Darwin. We’re sorry Rowan can’t be here in person and acknowledge the perspective and contribution he has brought to the work being shared.

Government strategies to improve Aboriginal children’s access to culturally safe, high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) are increasingly ambitious, and also increasingly measured. Yet many mainstream outcome frameworks privilege what is easy to count (enrolments, attendance, completions) over what Aboriginal families and communities say really matters (cultural safety, belonging, relationships, self-determination, and thriving). And while there is a growing number of evaluations of pilots, projects and small scale programs, there are few examples of culturally responsive evaluations of large-scale, multi-program and strategy-level initiatives.

This session shares an approach being used in the NSW Department of Education to build culturally meaningful process indicators and outcome measures for a statewide ECEC strategy. Drawing on lessons from recent evaluations of state-level ECEC programs and evaluation designs, we present a practical method for moving from policy intent to measurable outcomes without collapsing cultural concepts into deficit metrics.

The approach combines: (1) outcome-domain mapping that starts with Aboriginal-led commitments and community-informed constructs; (2) a set of core indicators that deliberately pairs quantitative indicators with qualitative evidence (yarning, narrative case examples, workforce and service reflections) so that relationships and cultural safety are visible; and (3) governance and data sensemaking processes that keep Aboriginal authority central in interpreting evidence and deciding what “good” looks like across diverse local contexts, while remaining accountable to statewide commitments.

We also discuss why “measuring what matters” is a safeguarding task. In recent evaluation work we observed that indicators can unintentionally shift attention, create compliance behaviours, redistribute decision rights, and generate cultural load. In this session we outline design choices that mitigate these risks, including co-design checkpoints, minimum evidence standards, and using indicators as prompts for shared interpretation rather than as league tables.

Participants will leave with an adaptable template for developing culturally meaningful indicators and outcome measures, and examples they can translate to their own settings and evaluation partnerships.

Chair

Deb Moyle

Speakers

Phillip Belling

Senior Evaluator, Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, NSW Department of Education

Talk to me about evaluation that transforms lives and enables social change. I’m interested in realist, developmental, embedded and responsive evaluation; evaluation in complex education systems; evaluation capacity building; and how we make credible evaluative judgements about... Read More →

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Short paper
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Not for profit Philanthropy
ID 230

11:30am ACST

Building culturally grounded evaluation, led by First Nations communities

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Jen Lorains (Children's Ground), Veronica Doolan (Children's Ground), Pauline Grant (Children's Ground), Jackie Treeves (Children's Ground)

For too long our people have been the subjects not the leaders of evaluation and research: “Our people have been researched to death. It’s time we researched ourselves back to life” (William Tilmouth, Senior Arrernte man).
Children’s Ground (CG) is disrupting the status quo in research and evaluation. From daily data collection and designing evaluation tools, to analysing evaluation data through community and culturally centred evaluation frameworks relevant to each place.

Using practice evidence and collaborative reflection about how First Nations communities are leading service/program evaluation for their families and place, the workshop learning objective is that participants will increase their understanding of culturally grounded evaluation and gain practical strategies and skills that can be applied to their evaluation context.

The workshop will consist of two parts, including CG sharing practice evidence, followed by collaborative group/table strategy development.

Firstly, CG’s evaluation principles will be outlined, with First Nations leaders sharing experiences in action. Participants will reflect on 2-3 principles, documenting their effective and challenging experiences of working in line with the principes, then sharing with the larger group. CG’s First Nations leaders will respond, building on the knowledge being generated by the participants.

Secondly, CG’s First Nations leaders will share experiences of developing community and culturally centred evaluation frameworks, including a visual walk through of 2-3 frameworks developed by First Nations communities across three culturally and geographically diverse regions. Comparative examples of evaluation data analysis between CG’s cultural and western evaluation frameworks will also be shared, including methodological implications.

Participants will collaboratively document ideas for supporting First Nations people/communities to develop community and culturally centred evaluation frameworks in their context, then sharing with the larger group.

We believe learning how to embed culturally grounded evaluation from First Nations community’s real-world experience is an important contribution to holistic learning, complements theoretical learning.

Chair

Deb Moyle

Speakers

Jen Lorains

Director Research & Evaluation, Childrens Ground

Jen Lorains is the Director of Research & Evaluation at Children’s Ground. She works with each community to evaluate and evidence the impact of Children’s Ground’s empowerment, systems reform and integrated service platform.Jen has undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications... Read More →

Veronica Doolan

Children's Ground

Pauline Grant

Jackie Treeves

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Skill building
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Economic development tourism and infrastructure, Health and disability, Education and training, Community and social services
ID 300

2:30pm ACST

Centring Indigenous worldviews: Warlpiri and the Itaukei Trust Affairs Board case learning

Wednesday September 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Allan Mua Illingworth (Itaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB), Marilyn Vilisoni (Itaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB) , Unaisi Manulevu (Itaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB), Glenda Wayne (Warlpiri - Yuendumu), Geoffrey Barnes (Warlpiri - Lajamanu), Natalie Morton (Warlpiri - Willowra), Leon Penhall (Warlpiri), Aysia Rodgers (non-Indigenous), Julia Burke (non-Indigenous), Shane D’Angelo (Kokatha), Alex Gyles (non-Indigenous).

“How might we most appropriately track and describe change about impact and wellbeing in Indigenous Australian and Fijian communities?”

Led by Indigenous community researchers and MEL practitioners, the session draws on two grounded case examples: the YWPP (Warlpiri Education and Training Trust, Tanami NT) approach to tracking learning and wellbeing, and community-centred MEL work supported by the Itaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB).

The session will be highly interactive: participants will break into small, facilitated groups with community and TTFB representatives to interrogate practice, and the table will close with a plenary synthesis that surfaces cross-case lessons, tensions, and practical next steps for culturally respectful MEL.

Chair

Belinda Hendrickson

Founder and Principal Consultant, Connected Impact Advisory

I am the founder of Connected Impact Advisory, an independent MEL and strategy consultancy working with Australian NGOs, government, and social sector organisations. Before establishing Connected Impact Advisory, I spent over six years in MEL roles at The Salvation Army Australia... Read More →

Speakers

Geoffrey Barnes

Central Land Council

Geoffrey Barnes

Shane D’Angelo

Alexander Gyles

Research Fellow - Monitoring and Evaluation, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University

Alex Gyles is a Research Fellow working in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) at the Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University. He works closely with Marlkirdi Rose Napaljarri on the YWPP project and finds fieldwork with the YWPP team an exciting learning... Read More →

Allan Mua Illingworth

Director, Mua'akia Consulting

Unaisi Manulevu

Itaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB)

Natalie Morton

Leon Penhall

Central Land Council

Aysia Rodgers

YWPP Community Researcher

Natalie Morton Napurrurla is a community researcher on the YWPP project from Willowra. She is a member of the Granites Affected Area Aboriginal Corporation Committee (GMAAAC) and is a director for the Willowra GMAAAC committee. She is passionate about working on projects that benefit both young and old community members in Willowra. She is able to work effectively across settings of conflict in Warlpiri communities. She is an energetic person that brings drive and entertainment to fieldwork... Read More →

Marilyn Vilisoni

Managing Director, Solve Pacific Consultancy

Glenda Napaljarri Wayne

Glenda Wayne Napaljarri is a community researcher on the YWPP
project from Yuendumu. She has developed her practice working
as an adult literacy tutor in Yuendumu’s Community Learning
Centre. In addition to conducting research in her home community
of Yuendumu, Glenda has travelled... Read More →

Wednesday September 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Round table
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Economic development tourism and infrastructure, Education and training, International development
ID 232

4:00pm ACST

Cultural Wisdom and Story Gathering: a participatory reflection session

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Jessi Gidgup-Lovett (Rooftop Social), Duncan Rintoul (Rooftop Social)

This session invites participants into a short, participatory exploration of Cultural Wisdom and Story Gathering, grounded in relational practice in how to do business with First Nations peoples and communities.
Before choosing methods, indicators or measures of success, we need to ask more fundamental questions: Who are we doing business with? Who holds power? How will power be shared? Whose knowledge will guide us? What are we responsible for.
Using simple sensory and reflective activities, this session will invite you to internalise respect, reciprocity, responsibility, reconciliation, being, knowing and doing as practical foundations for ethical evaluation practice. It will also ask participants to think critically about their own positionality and how they enter relationships with First Nations peoples.
You will leave with a one-page grounding resource to support ongoing reflective and reflexive practice, with a simple commitment to listen, learn, reflect, act and carry forward what you are learning through this conference.

Chair

John Gilbert

Manager Monitoring & Evaluation, Country Fire Authority

I am a program evaluator with over 20 years of experience in bushfire and natural hazards community safety and emergency management. This has included roles in the emergency services, universities and peak bodies. In my current role at the Country Fire Authority, I lead the Monitoring... Read More →

Speakers

Jessi Gidgup-Lovett

Rooftop Social

Duncan Rintoul

Managing Director, Rooftop Social

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Short paper
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Education and training, Community and social services, Not for profit Philanthropy
ID 330

4:30pm ACST

Using partnering principles to navigate power and ethics in evaluation

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Author: Dana Cross (Grosvenor)

Effective evaluation increasingly depends on strong partnerships across communities, commissioners, service providers and evaluators. Yet partnering is often guided by goodwill rather than shared principles, leaving teams vulnerable to power imbalances, ethical drift and unspoken assumptions. This skill building session focuses on principles-based partnering, defined as the deliberate use of a small, shared set of agreed principles to guide roles, behaviours and decision making within evaluation partnerships.

The objective of the session is to build participants’ capability to use partnering principles intentionally and appropriately in real world evaluation contexts, particularly where values, authority and accountabilities differ. Drawing on applied evaluation practice, the session introduces principles based partnering not as a universal solution, but as a supporting mechanism that must be applied judiciously and adapted to context and place.

Participants will develop three core skills:
1.Identifying when partnering principles are likely to be helpful and when they are unlikely to add value or may even create risk.
2.Understanding and applying practical processes for establishing partnering principles, including who should be involved, how principles can be co-created, and how they can be revisited over time.
3. Using principles to navigate tension, power dynamics and ethical dilemmas as they arise during the evaluation lifecycle.

The session is designed as an interactive workshop. Participants will work in small groups to explore short evaluation scenarios, test whether principles-based partnering is appropriate, and practice establishing and applying principles in context. This will be followed by whole group discussion to surface lessons and challenges.
Participants will leave with a clear, adaptable approach for deciding when and how to establish and use partnering principles. The session is suited to foundational and intermediate evaluators seeking hands on skills grounded in real world practice.

Chair

John Gilbert

Manager Monitoring & Evaluation, Country Fire Authority

Speakers

Dana Cross

Associate Director, Grosvenor Public Sector Advisory

Dana is a public sector expert, possessing almost 20 years of deep experience advising government organisations on program evaluation, organisational review, service optimisation and performance management. She is the Practice Lead for Program Evaluation. Dana has designed and conducted... Read More →

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Skill building
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Environment and climate change, Health and disability, Natural resources and energy, Public administration and safety
ID 118

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.

Chair

Anne Stephens

Director, Ethos of Engagement

Anne is the Director and Co-Founder of Ethos of Engagement Consulting a global and women-led research and evaluation firm. We work in Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Central America, UK and USA. We use Inclusive Systemic Thinking to guide our methodology and approaches and diversity is... Read More →

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 →

Mardi Grundy

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Human Security and Social Change

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

Evaluating with the Vanua: A Practical Framework for Relational, Place Based Evaluation in Indigenous Contexts

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

Rooms 1+2

Author: Elisabeta Torava
Evaluation practice in Indigenous communities across the Pacific and Australia often rely on Western tools that overlook relational obligations, kinship structures, and place based ethics. This session introduces a practical, culturally grounded evaluation approach based on vanua ontology, a relational worldview that positions land, people, and relationships as inseparable. Drawing from my doctoral research with iTaukei communities in Fiji, the session demonstrates how evaluators can design and implement evaluations that honour Indigenous values, strengthen relational accountability, and generate findings that communities recognise as meaningful.
The objective is to demonstrate how evaluators can redesign Western tools and methods to honour Indigenous relational ethics, strengthen cultural integrity, and generate findings that communities recognise and relate with. This work is important because many evaluation tools used across the Pacific and Australia continue to erase relational systems, producing invisibility, misinterpretation, and unintended harm.
The core argument is that evaluation practice must shift from individualistic, decontextualised measures to relational, place‑based approaches grounded in Indigenous worldviews. Three key messages will be shared:
- Western evaluation tools often embed assumptions that conflict with Indigenous relational logics.
- Vanua‑aligned principles offer a culturally coherent foundation for ethical, rigorous evaluation.
- Practical redesign is possible when evaluators centre relationships, place, and collective wellbeing.
Designed as a skill‑building session, the presentation uses hands‑on activities rather than lecture. Participants will analyse a standard Western evaluation tool, identify where invisibility occurs, and collaboratively redesign selected questions using vanua‑based principles. A case vignette and mapping template will guide this process.
Interactivity is promoted through small‑group work, collective mapping, movement‑based clustering, and facilitated dialogue. Participants will leave with a practical mini‑framework and concrete tools they can apply immediately in their own evaluation practice.

Chair

Anne Stephens

Director, Ethos of Engagement

Speakers

Elisabeta Torava

PhD Researcher, Monash University

Known among my colleagues as the All Rounder, I move across issues in Fiji with a depth shaped by lived experience, cultural grounding, and decades of navigating systems as an iTaukei woman. Born and raised in my village, I carry the wisdom of my ancestors through my grandmother’s... Read More →

Thursday September 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Skill building
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Education and training, Economic development tourism and infrastructure, Environment and climate change, Natural resources and energy, Community and social services

1:30pm ACST

From Panic to Practice: Putting AI to Work in Evaluation

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

Rooms 1+2

Author: Dorothea Huber
Lessons management in emergency management typically relies on mixed method approaches, with qualitative analysis carrying much of the analytical burden. Evaluators are increasingly expected to synthesise large volumes of unstructured material under tight timeframes, often in resource constrained public sector environments. Against this backdrop, artificial intelligence is alternately framed as a threat to professional judgement or as a solution to chronic capacity pressures. This paper argues that both framings are unhelpful.

Rather than replacing evaluative expertise, this presentation positions AI as a methodological assistant that can undertake defined, low risk tasks while leaving interpretation, sense making and ethical judgement firmly with the evaluator. Using real world examples drawn from emergency management lessons processes, the paper explores where AI has demonstrated practical value across the evaluation lifecycle. These include rapid document triage, support for qualitative coding within pre specified frameworks, identification of recurring themes and contradictions, synthesis of lessons learned, and surfacing gaps that may be missed under time pressure.

The paper also addresses common methodological and governance concerns, including transparency, bias, over reliance on fluent outputs, and the risk of mistaking confidence for insight. It outlines practical strategies for supervised AI use that protect rigour, credibility and accountability, particularly in settings where evaluative findings must withstand scrutiny and inform high stakes decisions.

Structured as a short paper, the presentation will focus on three key messages: where AI adds genuine value; where it should not be used; and how evaluators can establish clear boundaries for its application. Audience interaction will be built in through targeted questions and discussion, inviting participants to share their own experiences of using—or choosing not to use—AI in evaluation practice. The presentation reframes the central question from whether AI is the enemy, to how evaluators can use it well.

Chair

Magdeline Hawkins

Evaluation Lead, Attorney General's Department

Speakers

Dorothea Huber

Evaluation Advisor, AMSA

Dorothea Huber is a senior evaluation and lessons management professional with extensive experience across Commonwealth and state government, spanning maritime emergency response, health, employment, innovation, research and natural resource management. She is passionate about informed... Read More →

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

Roots and routes

Format Short paper
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Public administration and safety
ID 292

2:00pm ACST

Is there room in the C-suite for evaluators?

Thursday September 17, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Dana Cross, Piacarmel Andrews, Lyn Alderman

Across sectors, evaluators are increasingly seeking to move beyond assessing programs to shaping strategy, informing investment, strengthening accountability and supporting learning. Recent initiatives such as the Strengthening Evaluation in the Australian Government – Action Plan 2026–2030, with its emphasis on evaluation leadership, culture and use (and a call for Chief Evaluation Officers), reflect a broader trend: evaluation is being positioned as a core contributor to governance and decision making rather than a purely technical or advisory function.

This shift raises a provocative and timely question for the evaluation community: is there room in the C-suite for evaluators?

The presenters will explore whether closer proximity to executive power is necessary to strengthen evaluation’s influence and what might be gained or lost in the process. Rather than assuming that seniority automatically delivers impact, the discussion will examine different models of leadership, authority and positioning for evaluation across diverse organisational contexts.

Presenters will explore tensions such as:

Whether executive level access enhances evaluation use or risks compromising independence and credibility.
How evaluation leadership can be exercised without formal C suite roles.
What “good” evaluation leadership looks like in different sectors, cultures and places

Drawing on lived experience from across settings, the panel will reflect on how evaluation currently shows up, or fails to show up, in senior decision making forums, and what alternatives exist for strengthening its influence. Audience pulse questions will be used to give live insights to broader experiences and views, with time for questions at the end of the session inviting participants to share perspectives from their own contexts and challenge assumptions about status, power and professional identity in evaluation.

Chair

Magdeline Hawkins

Evaluation Lead, Attorney General's Department

Speakers

Dana Cross

Associate Director, Grosvenor Public Sector Advisory

Lyn Alderman

Professor, University of Southern Queensland

Pia Andrews

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

Roots and routes

Format Round table
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Not for profit Philanthropy, Economic development tourism and infrastructure, Arts and recreation services, Community and social services, Environment and climate change, Education and training, Health and disability, Information media and telecommunications, Nat

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.

Chair

Mary Raori

Regional Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Coordinator (Pacific), Australian Volunteers Program

Speakers

Victoria Pilbeam

MEL Adviser, Pacific Community | Communauté du Pacifique

I support MEL for fisheries, aquaculture and marine ecosystems across the Pacific Islands region. Previously, I worked for WWF-Australia and in consulting. I like MEL that is approachable, accessible, fair, and that genuinely helps people and organisations to learn and improve... 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

Is the evaluation market contracting? What now?

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

Rooms 1+2

A participant-led conversation exploring what’s happening in the evaluation market and what it means for our sector. Kate and Jess will set the scene with evidence of what’s happening internationally, before opening the discussion: What are we seeing and experiencing? Where are the challenges - and are there glimmers of opportunity emerging?

Speakers

Jess Dart

CEO, Clear Horizon

Dr Jess Dart is the founder and CEO of Clear Horizon, an Australian-based specialist evaluation company. Having received the 2018 Outstanding Contribution to Evaluation Award from the Australian Evaluation Society (AES), Jess is a recognised leader with over 25 years of experience... Read More →

Kate McKegg

Director, The Knowledge Institute

Kate has specialist skills in supporting evaluative thinking and practice in complex settings where people are innovating to create systems change. She has been applying these skills for over 25 years in government, non-government, philanthropic and community contexts, including many... Read More →

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Boundaries and bridges

Format Round table
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Education and training
ID 136

10:30am ACST

From framework to practice: What does it take to implement shared impact in place-based work?

Friday September 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Nicholas Hill Place Australia, Eve Millar, Place Australia
The use of place-based initiatives (PBIs) to address complex and entrenched disadvantage is expanding across Australia. These initiatives typically go beyond the delivery of single programs and involve cross-sector partnerships that place communities at the centre of efforts to address local problems. While a growing number of initiatives are demonstrating impact, the diversity of approaches, frameworks, and indicators used contributes to a fragmented evidence base. Inconsistencies in how impact is conceptualised and reported limit opportunities for shared learning and present a barrier to the growth and sustainability of the place-based ecosystem.

PLACE Australia is working collaboratively with stakeholders across the ecosystem—including government, philanthropy, not-for-profits, and community organisations—to develop a shared impact framework with a set of flexible indicators that more consistently demonstrate the impact of PBIs, support ongoing learning, and strengthen the sector. As the framework moves from development to implementation, a number of practical challenges arise. These include how shared indicators can be applied flexibly across diverse initiatives, how to balance consistency with local adaptation, how frameworks can support learning rather than compliance, and how Indigenous knowledge and community voice can be embedded in practice.

This roundtable brings together evaluators and practitioners to explore these challenges and identify practical pathways for implementation. Through facilitated discussion, participants will share their practice insights on implementation opportunities, risk and design considerations. The discussion will inform the next phase of testing and implementation of the shared impact framework.

Participants will be invited to reflect on the following questions:

1.How can shared indicators be consistently applied across diverse place-based initiatives while remaining meaningful to local contexts?

2.How can shared impact approaches support learning and improvement without becoming compliance-driven reporting requirements?

3.What risks and opportunities should be considered when implementing shared impact approaches across the place-based ecosystem?

4.What is needed to support the implementation and uptake of the shared impact framework across the sector?

Chair

Nic Vogelpoel

Director, Day Four Projects

We specialise in the theory and practice of good collaboration. We have a particular interest in learning and evaluation for partnerships, platforms and collaborative initiatives. We work with international and domestic partners from multilateral organisations, governments, NGOs... Read More →

Speakers

Nicholas Hill

Strengthening Place-based Impact Lead, PLACE Australia

Eve Millar

Director (Data, Evidence and Practice), PLACE

Friday September 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Boundaries and bridges

Format Round table
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Not for profit Philanthropy, Community and social services, Health and disability, Education and training, Environment and climate change
ID 281

11:30am ACST

Across the aisle: building practical skills for navigating ethical pressures in evaluation commissioning

Friday September 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors: Su-Ann Drew, Grosvenor, Jo van Twest Farmer, Rooftop Social, Eleanor Williams, ACE, Emma Williams, Martina Donkers
Ethical pressures arise due to a range of conflicting incentives that for those who commission and deliver evaluations. Evaluators may try to maintain methodological rigour while meeting tight timeframes or limited budgets. Commissioners may need defensible evidence while navigating organisational expectations, political sensitivities or shifting priorities. These pressures are real and often lead to ethical tensions for all involved, without an agreed or shared language for discussion. This session creates space for attendees to discuss challenges openly, safely and constructively, helps participants recognise and make sense of pressures shaping commissioning decisions, and builds participants’ confidence in responding in ways that support both quality and working relationships.

Building on previous AES presentations on 'everyday ethics', we give participants tools to apply in real-world commissioning contexts by introducing a simple organising framework, the Evaluation Pressure System, which helps participants identify the mix of pressures influencing a situation and why tensions arise. The framework is a guide to support reflection and conversation rather than a technical model.

Using the framework, we will explore fictional but realistic scenarios that illustrate common pressure points in commissioning and evaluation delivery. Participants will be invited, through anonymous polling, to indicate the extent to which each scenario reflects situations they have encountered. Through in-room conversations, attendees will use the framework to examine what helps maintain integrity and constructive working relationships when pressures collide. The intention is not to analyse cases in depth, but to build a clearer shared understanding of tensions that arise and how they can be handled well.

To support ongoing application, attendees will receive a Trade‑off Log to clarify constraints and integrity risks, and practical communication strategies for raising concerns early and negotiating expectations. These will help participants recognise tensions earlier, discuss them more openly and navigate them in ways that support quality and collaboration.

Chair

Nic Vogelpoel

Director, Day Four Projects

Speakers

Su-Ann Drew

Senior Manager, Grosvenor

Su-Ann is a Senior Manager specialising in program evaluation within Grosvenor’s public sector advisory practice. She has more than a decade of experience across management consulting, state government (including health, mental health, and alcohol and other drug policy and commissioning... Read More →

Emma Williams

Jo van Twest Farmer

Rooftop Social

Martina Donkers

Independent evaluator

I'm a self-employed evaluator who gets to works on lots of different interesting projects with lots of different excellent teams - how good is that! I like qual methods, complexity, making sure evaluation is useful, and helping people grapple with what data really mean. I run qual... Read More →

Friday September 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Skill building
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services, Public administration and safety, Not for profit Philanthropy
ID 179

1:30pm ACST

Embedding lived experience: strengthening the evaluation of Australia’s Disability Strategy with diverse ways of knowing

Friday September 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Authors Fergus Bailey, ARTD, Jade Maloney, ARTD
Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 emphasises the importance of inclusive practices across all sectors, including evaluation. We all have a role to play in achieving the vision of an inclusive Australian society that ensures people with disability can fulfil their potential, as equal members of the community.

At the 2025 AES conference, Melinda Nicholls, Amanda Charles, and Jane Spring AM introduced a practical guide to facilitate meaningful inclusion of people with disability in evaluation, embedding lived experience and promoting equitable participation.

ARTD Consultants is conducting the mid-term evaluation of Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, using the guide and their own lived experience evaluation framework for a lived experience centred approach. This a significant test of the guide in action.

In this panel, DHDA staff, Jade Maloney (CEO, ARTD Consultants), Fergus Bailey (Senior Consultant, ARTD Consultants), and lived experience representatives will discuss how the perspectives of people with lived experience were centred throughout the evaluation - in key evaluation team roles (including ARTD staff and a lived experience team), governance roles (e.g. Steering Committee), and consultation with people with disability across Australia.

They will provide perspectives as commissioners, evaluators, and people with lived experience on how the guide was operationalised for this process and the benefits to the evaluation.

They will share practical advice for how evaluators can effectively engage people with disability in leading and contributing to evaluations, which are applicable to engaging people with lived experience more broadly in evaluation governance, design and delivery roles, including tailored approaches for diverse communities.

After a presentation and discussion, Jade Maloney will facilitate questions as an experienced AES presenter and moderator, prompting around barriers, enablers, risk management, how challenges accommodated, and other considerations for this approach. Following the session the team will share learnings for the future with broader AES members.

Chair

Felicity Miles

Senior consultant, Healthconsult

Speakers

Jade Maloney

CEO, ARTD

I work with government agencies, not-for-profits and citizens to co-design, refine, communicate and evaluate social policies, regulatory systems and programs. I am passionate about ensuring citizens have a voice in shaping the policies that affect their lives, translating research... Read More →

Fergus Bailey

Senior Consultant, ARTD

Amanda Charles

Director Experience, Engagement and Evaluation, e Australian Department of Social Services

Friday September 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Short paper
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Health and disability, Community and social services
ID 285

2:00pm ACST

Beyond strategic metrics: Centering lived experience in youth program evaluation

Friday September 18, 2026 2:00pm - 2:30pm ACST

Rooms 1+2

Author: Annabel Prescott, Traction For Young People
Youth program evaluation faces a critical ethical question: Who is evaluation data for?

Drawing on Feedback Informed Treatment principles and youth empowerment frameworks, this presentation argues that when young people engage with their own data to understand and celebrate their growth, evaluation becomes a tool for agency rather than extraction.

Using TRACTION, a Queensland youth mentoring organisation, as a case study, we examine how internationally validated screening tools serve young people first and organisational learning second. Young people complete visual assessments at program entry, engage with their progress through facilitated conversations during the program, and review before-and-after results at completion. They keep their own copies and use their data in conversations with family, teachers, and others. This process makes visible the work young people have done, enabling them to name and claim their own progress.

The presentation explores three critical tensions:

1. How do we design evaluation that acknowledges young people as active participants in their own change process, not passive subjects of measurement?
2. What shifts when we position self-awareness and celebration as primary evaluation outcomes, with strategic metrics as secondary?
3. How do we ensure data collection practices honour young people's agency rather than extracting information purely for organisational purposes?

We present real examples of facilitated data conversations, visual assessment tools, and moments when young people recognise their own growth through evidence. When evaluation is grounded in participant empowerment, where people understand, acknowledge, and celebrate their own growth, it creates a foundation for ethical strategic data use.

This approach transfers to evaluation with any structurally marginalised population: First Nations communities, people experiencing disadvantage, or those marginalised by traditional service systems. Attendees will leave with critical questions for examining whether their own evaluation practices serve participant agency or organisational needs first.

Chair