Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change

A Guide to Shift Beyond Fixes to Lasting Value

Evaluation Inquiry for Systematic Inquiry reframes evaluation as a catalyst for systems learning rather than a measure of control—an essential shift for foundations confronting complexity. Providing both structure and insight, its five-phase systemic change framework and five-element evaluation model offer practical tools for integrating evaluation into strategy and strengthening learning and decision-making. The authors’ careful attention to context, inclusion, and shared purpose makes it especially relevant for foundations pursuing meaningful, lasting systems change.

The book is unique in that it combines several perspectives, practices, and theoretical standpoints together into a sophisticated and valuable focus. The framing of evaluative inquiry in concert with understanding and promoting systemic change efforts is useful in bridging the worlds of evaluation, systems theory, and systemic change practice, which inform each other in the real world, but are not often discussed together in the literature. To my knowledge, this is a novel approach that will serve to bridge several disciplines in service of improving practice.

The book’s central contribution is its articulation of critical and deliberative evaluative inquiry as a foundation for all phases of a systems change evaluation. This focus is of paramount importance to evaluators navigating complexity, inviting a shift from seeing themselves as technical experts to facilitators of collective learning. Through a good balance of theory, concrete examples, and resources, readers will gain actionable insights around how evaluators can develop value around both the process and outcomes of systems change. 

This book fills a critical gap by offering a dual perspective often missing from other evaluative texts. It stands as an essential resource for shaping the future of evaluation and driving meaningful change.

The five evaluative elements outlined in this book offer a clear and practical foundation, especially valuable for commissioners and consultants designing and evaluating portfolios in international development. It’s a useful guide for those seeking to embed evaluative thinking across initiatives while staying responsive to the maturity and dynamics of the systems they aim to influence.

Evaluative Inquiry for Systematic Change is unique in that it combines evaluation and systems change in a comprehensive text. The book takes a practical approach, which students will find helpful as they learn how to implement systems aware evaluations.

I appreciate the book and the authors' approach to systemic change. Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change effectively fills a gap in the existing literature and offers a solid conceptual and theoretical foundation to evaluation. Overall, a thank you to the authors!