Loading…
This is the draft aes26 program, subject to change. To register for workshops and the conference, go to: https://www.aes26.aes.asn.au/
Venue: Rooms 1+2 clear filter
Wednesday, September 16
 

11:00am ACST

Two Worlds Evaluation: Shifting power back to community and embedding Indigenous Data Sovereignty in practice
Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST
Rooms 1+2
Authors: Jess Moniodis (North Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service), Mona Roberts (North Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service)
This session will examine how NAAFLS is embedding Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance principles into program evaluation. Our evaluation applies Indigenous-led qualitative methodologies that are explicitly aligned with nationally recognised victim-survivor principles. These methods prioritise safety, choice, voice, control, dignity, healing, and accountability across stages of the evaluation.

Guided by a two-worlds approach, and place-based victim-survivor led solutions, we recognise that well-intentioned initiatives can sometimes unintentionally create negative impacts rather than support community-defined outcomes.

NAAFLS aims to address this by co-creating an evaluation approach that places First Nations perspectives on safety and wellbeing at the forefront, while aligning with nationally recognised victim-survivor and organisational principles. We will explore how evaluation has helped restore ethics and integrity in a complex setting to support collective learning across stakeholders and shift power back to our communities. Our approach prioritises women’s voices, lived experience, cultural knowledge, and the inclusion of diverse perspectives to ensure evaluation is grounded in the lived realities of those most affected.

Informed by a two-worlds approach and Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence 2026–2036, this work centres victim-survivors, Elders, community members, service providers, and experienced professionals in defining success, shaping accountability, and guiding learning and improvement. This presentation will demonstrate NAAFLS practical application of a two-way lens - sharing our approach and reflections in translating Indigenous Data Sovereignty from principle into practice. It will also discuss lessons learned in embedding best-practice principles, supporting place-based understanding, and strengthening sustainable, community-led pathways for support.

Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own practice, share their experiences and challenges, and discuss practical ways to embed Indigenous Data Sovereignty into evaluation practices.
Speakers
JM

Jess Moniodis

North Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service
MR

Mona Roberts

North Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service
Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Ethics and integrity

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.


Speakers
JL

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 in applied social research and over 15 years experience designing and undertaking research and evaluation with communities and services. Her interest lies in working with communities to implement and evaluate approaches (within... Read More →
VD

Veronica Doolan

Children's Ground
PG
JT
Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Traditional and new ways

2:30pm ACST

Using partnering principles to navigate power and ethics in evaluation
Wednesday September 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm 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.

Speakers
avatar for Dana Cross

Dana Cross

Associate Director, Grosvenor Public Sector Advisory
Dana is a public sector expert, possessing over 17 years of deep experience advising government organisations on program evaluation, organisational review, service optimisation and performance management. She is a member of Grosvenor’s Executive Leadership Team as Head of Strategy... Read More →
Wednesday September 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Ethics and integrity

4:00pm ACST

Cultural Wisdom and Story Gathering Artefact: A two-worlds approach to developing culturally responsive evaluation practice
Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2
Authors: Jessi Gidgup-Lovett (Rooftop Social), Duncan Rintoul (Rooftop Social)

First Nations peoples of Australia have evaluated outcomes, impacts and responsibilities since time immemorial through Indigenous systems of lore, knowledge and accountability to Country, kin and future generations. The Cultural Wisdom and Story Gathering Artefact (CWISGA) responds to this context by reframing monitoring and evaluation as practices of accountability, care, truth telling and improvement rather than extraction and surveillance. The objective of this presentation is to introduce CWISGA and show why culturally responsive evaluation that begins with relationships and engagement is essential for better outcomes across the sector.

CWISGA provides an accessible framework that operationalises culturally responsive evaluation through clear principles aligned with the four Rs of reconciliation, respect, reciprocity and responsibility, and with the interconnected wisdoms of Knowing, Doing and Being.

Three key messages guide the work: embed cultural governance from the outset rather than as an afterthought, uphold Indigenous Data Sovereignty and governance, and interpret outcomes through holistic wellbeing and relational accountability.

The session will open with a concise framing of the developmental context in a national organisation that supports equity focused curriculum in schools, followed by a guided walk through the CWISGA principles and a brief case example. Interactivity will be promoted through a short yarning prompt and small group reflection on local application of CWISGA, followed by commitments to action to support translation into practice.
Speakers
JG

Jessi Gidgup-Lovett

Rooftop Social
DR

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

4:30pm ACST

Centring Indigenous worldviews: Warlpiri and the Itaukei Trust Affairs Board case learning
Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2
Authors: Alexander Gyles (La Trobe University), Allan Mua Illingworth (Muaakia Consulting), Glenda Napaljarri Wayne (La Trobe University), Mildred Napaljarri Spencer (La Trobe University), Raelene Jigili (Central Land Council), Marilyn Vilsoni (Solve Pacific)

“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 Affairs 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.

Speakers
avatar for Alexander Gyles

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 →
AM
GN

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 →
RJ
MN
MV

Marilyn Vilisoni

Managing Director, Solve Pacific
Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Traditional and new ways
 
Thursday, September 17
 

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
avatar for Elisabeth Jackson

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 →
TD

Thushara Dibley

Centre For Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University
SD

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

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.


Speakers
ET

Elisabeta Torava

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

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.

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

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.
Speakers
avatar for Dana Cross

Dana Cross

Associate Director, Grosvenor Public Sector Advisory
Dana is a public sector expert, possessing over 17 years of deep experience advising government organisations on program evaluation, organisational review, service optimisation and performance management. She is a member of Grosvenor’s Executive Leadership Team as Head of Strategy... Read More →
LA

Lyn Alderman

The Evaluators' Collective
PA
Thursday September 17, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Roots and routes

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
avatar for Victoria Pilbeam

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 →
avatar for India Lynn

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

4:00pm ACST

Strengthening community mental wellbeing through culturally grounded and practical evaluation tools in Vanuatu.
Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2
Author: Michael Taiki, Lokol Solutions

This Skill Building session introduces three practical, culturally grounded evaluation tools developed through Churches of Christ Vanuatu’s (CCCV) mental wellbeing work: the Faith + Data Model, the Youth Risk‑Mapping Tool and Trauma‑Informed Storian Circles. These tools emerged from a multi‑year program involving a 1,110‑household Urban Study, youth behavioural data, earthquake trauma responses and community‑driven interventions. The session addresses a core challenge in evaluation: how to design methods that are rigorous, culturally resonant and effective in low‑resource, cross‑cultural settings.
The objective of the presentation is to equip evaluators with adaptable tools that integrate community evidence, kastom practices and faith‑based strengths to strengthen mental wellbeing systems. This topic is important because evaluators increasingly work in culturally diverse contexts where Western evaluation methods alone are insufficient for capturing lived experience, trauma, and relational dynamics.
The presentation advances three key messages:
1.Evaluation must integrate cultural and spiritual knowledge with data to produce meaningful insights.
2.Youth wellbeing requires rapid, context‑specific assessment tools that identify patterns of risk and guide targeted interventions.
3.Trauma‑aware, culturally grounded qualitative methods can generate rich data while supporting community healing and resilience.
Each tool is introduced through a short demonstration using real CCCV examples, followed by a structured group activity where participants apply the tool to a scenario. This design ensures that participants not only understand the concepts but also practice using them in a supportive environment.
The session will be interactive through small‑group exercises, reflective discussions and scenario‑based problem‑solving. Participants will map youth risks, design a Storian Circle prompt and apply the Faith + Data Model to a community case study. These activities encourage peer learning, cultural reflection and practical skill development.
By the end of the session, participants will leave with three adaptable tools they can apply immediately in their own evaluation contexts.


Speakers
MT
Thursday September 17, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Boundaries and bridges
 
Friday, September 18
 

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?
Speakers
NH

Nicholas Hill

Strengthening Place-based Impact Lead, PLACE Australia
EM

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

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.


Speakers
avatar for Su-Ann Drew

Su-Ann Drew

Senior Manager, Grosvenor
Su-Ann is a Manager specialising in program evaluation within Grosvenor’s public sector advisory practice. Su-Ann has more than a decade of rich and diverse professional experience, which enables her to offer a unique perspective and critical lens to solving complex problems for... Read More →
EW
JV

Jo van Twest Farmer

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

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.

Speakers
avatar for Jade Maloney

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 →
FB

Fergus Bailey

Senior Consultant, ARTD
Friday September 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Ethics and integrity

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.
Speakers
AP

Annabel Prescott

CEO, Traction for Young People
Friday September 18, 2026 2:00pm - 2:30pm ACST
Rooms 1+2 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia
  Ethics and integrity
 
  • Filter By Date
    Sep 16 - 18, 2026
  • Filter By Room
    Darwin NT, Australia
    All
    Hall 2
    Rooms 1+2
    Rooms 3+4
    Waterfront 1
    Waterfront 2
    Waterfront 3
  • Filter By Type
    Boundaries and bridges
    Ethics and integrity
    Ignite session
    Plenary
    Roots and routes
    Special
    Traditional and new ways
  • Format
    Big room
    Ignite
    Keynote address
    Long paper
    Panel
    Round table
    Short paper
    Skill building
  • Audience Level
    Advanced
    Foundational
    Intermediate
  • Industry
    Arts and recreation services
    Community and social services
    Economic development tourism and infrastructure
    Education and training
    Environment and climate change
    Health and disability
    Information media and telecommunications
    International development
    Nat
    Natur
    Natural resources and energy
    No
    Not for profit Philanthropy
    Public administration and safety
  • ID
    2
    24
    32
    38
    40
    41
    45
    57
    79
    82
    84
    87
    91
    93
    98
    101
    102
    105
    112
    113
    114
    118
    122
    124
    128
    130
    131
    134
    135
    136
    137
    140
    146
    148
    154
    157
    158
    161
    162
    166
    169
    170
    171
    174
    179
    180
    183
    187
    188
    190
    192
    200
    206
    210
    212
    214
    219
    220
    222
    224
    225
    228
    230
    232
    234
    239
    243
    244
    247
    249
    251
    252
    255
    262
    265
    266
    268
    272
    274
    276
    281
    285
    287
    289
    290
    291
    292
    296
    297
    300
    301
    302
    306
    307
    311
    312
    315
    318
    319
    320
    322
    323
    328
    330
    1010
  • Timezone

Get help with the event

Contact event planner Event login
View support guides Find upcoming events
Create an event you'd love to attend!
Explore why organizers choose Sched • Success stories
Event App • Event scheduling • Event registration • Event ticketing • Sched forms • Call for papers • Badges • Conferences
© 2026. SCHED LLC - All rights reserved - Helping events since 2008
Event Planning App • Privacy • Terms
Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link

Filter sessions
Apply filters to sessions.
Wednesday, September 16
Thursday, September 17
Friday, September 18
Hall 2
Rooms 1+2
Rooms 3+4
Waterfront 1
Waterfront 2
Waterfront 3
  • Boundaries and bridges
  • Ethics and integrity
  • Ignite session
  • Plenary
  • Roots and routes
  • Special
  • Traditional and new ways
  • Format
  • Big room
  • Ignite
  • Keynote address
  • Long paper
  • Panel
  • Round table
  • Short paper
  • Skill building
  • Audience Level
  • Advanced
  • Foundational
  • Intermediate
  • Industry
  • Arts and recreation services
  • Community and social services
  • Economic development tourism and infrastructure
  • Education and training
  • Environment and climate change
  • Health and disability
  • Information media and telecommunications
  • International development
  • Nat
  • Natur
  • Natural resources and energy
  • No
  • Not for profit Philanthropy
  • Public administration and safety
  • ID
  • 2
  • 24
  • 32
  • 38
  • 40
  • 41
  • 45
  • 57
  • 79
  • 82
  • 84
  • 87
  • 91
  • 93
  • 98
  • 101
  • 102
  • 105
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 118
  • 122
  • 124
  • 128
  • 130
  • 131
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 140
  • 146
  • 148
  • 154
  • 157
  • 158
  • 161
  • 162
  • 166
  • 169
  • 170
  • 171
  • 174
  • 179
  • 180
  • 183
  • 187
  • 188
  • 190
  • 192
  • 200
  • 206
  • 210
  • 212
  • 214
  • 219
  • 220
  • 222
  • 224
  • 225
  • 228
  • 230
  • 232
  • 234
  • 239
  • 243
  • 244
  • 247
  • 249
  • 251
  • 252
  • 255
  • 262
  • 265
  • 266
  • 268
  • 272
  • 274
  • 276
  • 281
  • 285
  • 287
  • 289
  • 290
  • 291
  • 292
  • 296
  • 297
  • 300
  • 301
  • 302
  • 306
  • 307
  • 311
  • 312
  • 315
  • 318
  • 319
  • 320
  • 322
  • 323
  • 328
  • 330
  • 1010
  • Popular