The Commitment Mural: Let’s Decolonize Evaluation Together

Abstract

In this mural we demonstrate liberation of evaluation from normalized publication structures. The article is a challenge to publication structures, more specifically journals, to open space for diversity of expression of thought. In this mural, practitioners, academics, policymakers, development partners, VOPEs (Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluations), speak to the strategies to decolonize evaluation. The immediate impact of this mural is a demonstrated commitment to decolonize evaluation by more than 50 individuals and entities. Taking up the commitment will be a demonstrable change that came with the mural. The mural also provides an open space for the exchange of ideas, and strategies to decolonize evaluation. Moreover, the contributing voices are preserved in their own voices and their contribution to global knowledge production is acknowledged. This is indeed a departure from the ethics of confidentiality in research where the participants in an evaluation inquiry largely remain anonymous even in the co-creation of knowledge. We believe that when participants in an evaluation inquiry come across their commitments in evaluation journals, they are encouraged to further form coalitions with like minds and hold themselves accountable collectively to liberate evaluation from the remnants of colonialism.

Keywords

• decolonization
• shifting power
• journal structures
• decolonize evaluation
• engineering serendipity
• collaboration