March 2021

Learning as you go: Becoming part of the solution as a Blue Marble Evaluator navigating the pandemic

What are we learning in this pandemic? We are seeing that individuals matter: individual actions have reverberating consequences. We are also seeing that systems matter: how systems act to address the pandemic and protect peoples have dire consequences for the individuals that live in society and for the rest of us around the blue marble. Various levels of governments … Read more

March 2021 Newsletter

Last week, we passed the one-year mark of COVID-19 being declared by WHO as a global pandemic. Blue Marble Evaluation calls us to zoom in on the local impact of this milestone and zoom out to see the global trends and impact. We see that there are disparities both within and between countries in how the COVID-19 vaccine is being distributed, just … Read more

The 2021 World Food Systems Summit & BME

In 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit aims to support transformation of the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. It aims to be inclusive by bringing together scientists, policy makers, business leaders, farmers, indigenous people, … Read more

A Social Equity Assessment Tool (SEAT) for Evaluation

The paper discusses the lack of a methodological tool for equity assessment in the evaluation field. It highlights the historical neglect of equity and social justice in some of the most widely and globally utilized evaluation criteria, including the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Evaluation Criteria, and its implications for the evaluation field’s equity assessment … Read more

Relational Systems Thinking: That’s How Change Is Going to Come, from Our Earth Mother

This article explores the notion of the need to decolonize systems thinking and awareness. Taking a specifically Indigenous approach to both knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, the authors look at awareness based systems change via a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) two row visual code. The authors explore the sacred space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of thinking … Read more

Evaluation Criteria for Evaluating Transformation: Implications for the Coronavirus Pandemic and the Global Climate Emergency

Fundamental systems transformations are needed to address the global emergency brought on by climate change and related global trends, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which, together, pose existential threats to the future of humanity. Transformation has become the clarion call on the global stage. Evaluating transformation requires criteria. The revised Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development … Read more

Blue Marble Evaluation Principles in Japanese

Blue Marble Japan, Inc. aims to facilitate system transformation to realize a sustainable world. They have translated the Blue Marble Principles into Japanese. Click here to view the principles Download the principles