Surviving the Anthropocene: How evaluation can contribute to knowledge and better policymaking

Abstract

We live in the Anthropocene in which human impact on Earth is the dominant force. At the same time, humans are very much part of the ecosystem. This close interdependency is brought home by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as by anthropogenic climate change. Ecosystem health and human health are closely interlinked. Transformational change is required to avoid further catastrophes caused by the three environmental crises that human actions have caused: climate crisis; nature crisis; and pollution and waste crisis. Evaluation can contribute to finding durable solutions based on sound science and experiences from the field, but to do so evaluation must broaden its vision. Theory-based approaches will remain central, but they must be open to the full human and natural systems in which the intervention that is the evaluand operates. Evaluations must also pay attention to unintended consequences of all interventions to the environment, to social and power relations, to women, indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups. I identify three principles for evaluation in the Anthropocene, at the nexus of human and natural systems, and illustrate them using examples from evaluations from the Global Environment Facility: (a) integrating human and natural systems; (b) geographical approaches; and (c) addressing the drivers.