Challenging democracy, human rights, and governance evaluation capacity development through a transformative lens

Democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) evaluation practice faces diverse challenges, not only because of the complexity of intervention designs and implementation but also due to the complexity of the fragile contexts in which DRG evaluation is generally applied. Evaluating in fragile contexts demands responsiveness to the complexity and provides challenges to define what capacities and competencies a DRG evaluator should have. In 2019, the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) was funded to design a set of tools to develop individual and institutional DRG evaluation capacities in an online training course and an associated toolkit. These materials aim to advocate for more DRG evaluation for a stronger democracy, advancing human rights, and increased governance. Using a transformative lens, this chapter critically reviews the challenges and constraints faced while developing DRG evaluators’ capacities. This critical analysis of complexity with a transformative lens adds insights into the practice of evaluation in the pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.