DeGEval  - Evaluation Society has three main aims:

Professionalization of Evaluation

The growing demand for evaluation offers many opportunities, but also implies certain risks. These are related firstly to evaluation quality and secondly to the professionalism of evaluators. Despite a great interest in evaluation, there is a clear need for information regarding the possibilities and the limitations of evaluation and regarding its benefits and costs. Therefore, DeGEval – Evaluation Society is strongly committed to the following:

• to promote binding quality standards for evaluation laid down in the ‘Standards for Evaluation’ and the subsequent ‘Guidelines for Implementation of the Standards in the Field of Self-Evaluation’;
• to support high-quality training and education on basis of the"Empfehlungen zur Aus- und Weiterbildung in der Evaluation" (Recommendations for evaluation training programmes);
• to communicate the importance of qualitatively sophisticated evaluations to clients, evaluators and those being evaluated;
• to make information about evaluation available to the public.

 

Consolidation of Different Perspectives

In order to consolidate differing perspectives, experience and expectations regarding evaluation, DeGEval has set itself the following tasks:

• to promote a dialogue between evaluators both within and beyond singular fields of evaluation, this being an especial achievement of the DeGEval work groups;
• to gather together the experience and expectations of clients, evaluation researchers, evaluators, and the evaluated;
• to uphold and expand contacts to the relevant national and international organizations that are active in various fields of evaluation.
  
  

Promotion of Information Flow and Dialogue

The continual differentiation in the field of evaluation demands a constant flow of information and dialogue and a cooperative discourse. The following are some of DeGEval’s contributions to this goal:

• the organization of annual conferences as a platform for critical discussions concerning evaluation approaches, designs, and methods;
• its presence in the German Journal of Evaluation (ZfEv) which offers a qualified discussion forum regarding evaluation;
• via email services (DeGEval...Mail) offering an informative forum that reports on evaluation activities and the need for evaluation in various fields;
• support of the mailing list forum-evaluation that allows a continual dialogue regarding evaluation experience and offers the opportunity to discuss questions about the field of evaluation.

 

 

DeGEval-Young Talent Award

• To promote professional development of evaluations, DeGEval Evaluation Society awards once a year the DeGEval-Young Talent Award for outstanding contributions on evaluation.