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This webinar explores the essential principles of developmental evaluation (DE) and how funders adapt them to in a variety of scenarios and contexts. As DE gains traction, people are implementing them in different ways and taking full advantage of DE’s commitment to flexibility. But how much flexibility it too much? What is fundamental? Speakers from three unique DEs will discuss their experiences, which varied significantly while successfully fulfilling core DE purposes. The session will also share resources for those interested in DE implementation.

In the context of the Anthropocene, organizations today struggle in finding a balance between maximizing profits and generating value for their stakeholders, the environment and the society at large. Josep M. Coll’s new book Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: the natural path to sustainable transformation (Routledge) explores a radical new conception of business and management. It is grounded on the reconnection of humans with nature as the new competitive advantage for living organizations and entrepreneurs that aspire to reinvent, create and mindfully manage and evaluate sustainable organizations that drive systemic transformations.

In this webinar we present the main ideas behind the book and we will explore the intersections between Blue Marble Evaluation and Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking as enablers of systems transformation.

Transformation: what it is, why it matters, how to achieve it, and meaningfully evaluate it. That's the territory of this book. Systems understandings can propel transformation, but to do so must cut through the cacophonous demands for more rigorous methods to pursue the challenge of engaging in more rigorous thinking. Drawing on ancient and enduring wisdom, this book illuminates the pathway to sustainability where what is at stake is nothing less than the future of humanity on Earth.

Click here to view the recording of the webinar on YouTube.

Regenerate Costa Rica is an initiative by the University for International Cooperation launched in 2018. The initiative brings together a community with multiple capacities in order to reflect, plan and activate projects that enable the country’s transition towards a regenerative paradigm. 

Given the realities of the anthropocene playing out across Costa Rica (one of the most biodiverse countries in the world), they developed a holistic vision based on the 6 pillars of regeneration—environment, society, politics, economy, culture and spirituality—developed by their leader, Eduard Muller. 

As visionary experts in regeneration, they have identified Blue Marble evaluation as a critical dimension and have started to implement an innovative strategy to develop one of the world's first Blue Marble Baselines and a future Blue Marble Hub in Costa Rica for adaptive learning through implementation towards regeneration across Central America. 

Join us as we hear about this initiative’s transformative vision, their comprehensive delta of regenerative projects and their commitment to work so that life can evolve in free, healthy and fair conditions.

Click here to watch a recording of this webinar on YouTube. The original chat log is available to view here.

This webinar was a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of the Transformation Systems Mapping & Analysis Working group and highlighted the work of the hosts of our 13th workstream - Decolonizing Systems Mapping. 

Turtle Island Institute (TII) is a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank, a teaching lodge.  Over the past couple of years TII has developed a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness and transformation.  Building on Founder & Co-Director Melanie Goodchild's work on Relational Systems Thinking (RST), the talk will provide an overview of RST as a bridge between systems thinking and Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin (original ways of knowing).  The TII teaching lodge, Mikinaak Wigyaam (Turtle Lodge), explores RST through gichi gakinoo'imaatiwin (the act of great or deep teaching).  Our workstream will explore systems mapping from a 'decolonial' lens that centres relationships and mutual benefit for all. 

Presenter Bios:

Melanie Goodchild is moose clan from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations in Northwestern Ontario.  She is the Founder & a Co-Director of the Turtle Island Institute, a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank (a teaching lodge).  The Institute’s virtual teaching lodge Mikinaak Wigyaam (Turtle Lodge) introduces members to Relational Systems Thinking, a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness.  Melanie is a Faculty member with the Academy for Systems Change, a team member of the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning and a member of the Editorial Board for the new Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change from the Presencing Institute at MIT.  She is a PhD Candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo and a Research Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience.

Terrellyn Fearn is snake clan from Glooscap First Nation and a member of the Wabanaki Confederacy which extends from the eastern shores of Canada to the Northeastern United States.  She is the Co-Director of the Turtle Island Institute, a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank (a teaching lodge) focussing on Relational Systems Thinking, a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness. Her work spans 25 years of applying healing-centred and ancestrally given processes to community-engagement and research with more than 350 Indigenous communities across Turtle Island. Through rematriation, and grounded in Indigenous pedagogical approaches, her work reawakens cultural and linguistic ethical standards rooted in matrilineal care and forms a pathway to deepened awareness in International systems change practice. Terrellyn is a MEd. Candidate at York University and a Research Associate with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience. 

You can access a recording of the webinar on our YouTube Channel. 

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 are by far the largest stakeholders in transformative engagements as systems where the public service, GUIDEd by principles of democracy, respect for peoples, integrity, and stewardship are entrusted to serve the people and navigate us through the pandemic.

How do we, as Blue Marble evaluators, tackle complexity that continues to morph? This webinar is for evaluators both internal and external working directly or indirectly for or with the social innovators in the public/not-for-profit sector who find themselves dealing with problems, trying out strategies, and striving to be where we want to be that emerge from our engagement with the transformation process.

We invite you to participate from where you are and engage in a hands-on synchronous experiential learning as collaborative BME learners to learn how to zoom in and out to provide timely, meaningful, relevant, credible, and actionable information as BM evaluators in support of systems transformation so that BME is part of the solution, utilizing principles-focused developmental evaluation as an intervention that inform innovative and adaptive development in complex realities of our Anthropocene.

Please click here to watch a recording.

In this webinar, we heard from several young and emerging evaluators and leaders from the EvalYouth Global Network about the ways they are embedding BME principles into their work, both as a network and as individual evaluators. EvalYouth is a global, multi-stakeholder partnership/network that supports and promotes young and emerging evaluators (YEEs) and youth-led accountability around the world. The Network has substantially grown since its inception in 2015 during the International Year of Evaluation and as a part of the Global Evaluation Agenda.  We also explore how BME can be enhanced by following EvalYouth's lead and how to further promote BME principles among YEEs around the world.

Please watch the webinar recording via YouTube.

Developmental Evaluation (DE) seeks to enhance programs by strengthening innovation and adaptation, in part through physically embedding evaluators within projects. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced a shift to remote work, encouraging DE implementers to do what they do best — innovate and adapt — to continue remotely. In response, USAID/Indonesia commissioned Social Impact to prepare a Guide capturing broadly applicable learnings and methods for successfully implementing Remote DEs. The Guide (available here) is based on conversations with six DEs at USAID, the UN, and Gates Foundation across four continents and with the USAID Global Development Lab’s Developmental Evaluation Pilot Activity (DEPA-MERL).

Please click here to watch a recording of the roundtable discussion with representatives from the six developmental evaluations that contributed to this effort.

This webinar provides an in-depth look at how one foundation applied the Blue Marble Evaluation principles to their work. 

GHR Foundation, an independent foundation based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, exists to be of service to people and their limitless potential for good.  In 2016, the global call from Pope Francis to “build bridges, not walls” spurred GHR to design its BridgeBuilder® Challenge initiative as a means to incentivize creative social-change solutions that bridge peace, prosperity and planet among people, organizations, issues and beliefs to promote meaningful engagement and sustainable, community-led change. The Foundation funded the initiative for three years at $1M per year in partnership with OpenIDEO.

Blue Marble Evaluation calls us to “apply whole-Earth, big-picture thinking to all aspects of systems change.” BridgeBuilder recognizes that responding to global challenges like climate change and inequality require a more interconnected approach to grantmaking.

In this webinar we explore the convergence between the BridgeBuilder guiding principles and Blue Marble’s operating principles. Specifically, we look at where a Blue Marble approach complements or adds depth to GHR’s principles, as well as where GHR’s principles can enhance and inform how a Blue Marble approach is implemented. We also use this webinar as an opportunity to highlight challenges and opportunities in implementing Blue Marble Evaluation in a real-world example.

The webinar is based on a recent case study, available here: https://bluemarbleeval.org/case-studies/principles-driven-responsive-ph…

Click here to access a recording of the webinar.

In this last webinar of 2020, Michael, Glenn and Pablo look back at the year 2020 and reflect on what we have learned about Blue Marble Evaluation's application in this rapidly changing world. Click here to watch a recording of this webinar.

This webinar is now complete. Please click here to access a recording. Ms. Bonometti has also written a follow-up blog post answering some of the questions posed during this webinar. Click here to read that post.

For this webinar, we will be joined by Tostan CEO Elena Bonometti to learn how a grassroots, human-rights based nonformal education program has sparked deeply transformational social change leading to policy and institutional changes affecting millions of people in West Africa. Tostan is a globally recognized leader with an approach that speaks to all four of Blue Marble’s Overarching Principles.