Sustainability

This book introduces Blue Marble evaluation, which provides a framework for developing, adapting, and evaluating major systems change initiatives involving complex networks of stakeholders.

Guest Blue Marble Evaluation blog from Scott C. Chaplowe, a dedicated evaluation professional with over 20 years’ experience working with civic, public and private organizations seeking sustainable solutions for social and environmental challenges.

Despite not being able to be held in person, the swell of online activity around International Mother Earth Day this year, the movement’s 50th anniversary, demonstrates just how much we are connected to one another – no matter where on earth we are. Now, more than ever, this landmark event calls on us to think and act systemically on the (many, many) challenges and opportunities in front of us when it comes to climate action. We either get through this together and systemically, or we won’t.

The McKnight Foundation has supported the first of the Blue Marble Evaluation innovators — from Michael Quinn Patton and the World Savvy team, to the evaluators embedded in the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and the Collaborative Crop Research Program. This initial Blue Marble Cohort has learned from each other, challenged each other, and is actively providing critical tools and frameworks for the field. Writing on the day of the launch of Blue Marble Evaluation: Premises and Principles in Minneapolis, Jane Maland Cady, Program Director, International – McKnight Foundation, explains that the work has only begun and why it’s important to use this approach to evaluation to address the critical challenges facing our one and only planet.