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CECAN Webinar: Making Policy and Making Policy Work with Developmental Evaluation

Jul 24, 2018 | News

CECAN were pleased to host a webinar with Dr Martin Reynolds from the Open University on 24th July. Martin presented his work on developmental evaluation, which endeavours to reconfigure evaluation practice away from merely serving purposes of external accountability of policy towards making evaluation integral to the dualistic practice of policy making and policy implementation.

A framework of developmental evaluation was introduced based on a simple heuristic founded on three principles from a tradition of systems thinking in practice – understanding inter-relationships, engaging with multiple perspectives, and reflecting on boundary judgements. Two case stories of developmental evaluation were used to illustrate the workings of the heuristic towards making policy and making policy work.

If you were unable to join the webinar, you can watch/listen to the session via our Youtube channel below. Martin has also kindly made his slides available for download here.

 

⏰ Applications close on 31 May! There's still time to apply for the CECAN Fellowship Scheme 2026 - a bespoke program of individual consultations with experts from the CECAN network! Details & Apply: www.cecan.ac.uk/cecan-fellow... #PolicyEvaluation #SystemsThinking #Complexity #Fellowship

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— CECAN (@cecan.bsky.social) May 22, 2026 at 9:41 AM

Join us for our next CECAN Webinar – Policy Red Teaming: Uncovering Policy Risks Before It’s Too Late 🎙️ Presented by @lindalammensalo.bsky.social ⏰ 1 June, 1pm BST Find out more & register free ⬇️ www.cecan.ac.uk/events/cecan... #PolicyMaking #Evaluation #RedTeaming

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— CECAN (@cecan.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 1:45 PM
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