Evaluation at the frontier: the new FCDO evaluation strategy and dealing with change and complexity
This event, broadcast live on Wednesday 16 September 2026, brought together colleagues from Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the British Council, Integrity and the wider evaluation community to discuss the new strategy and some of the challenges and opportunities shaping evaluation practice.
FCDO Evaluation Strategy 2026–2030: key themes from the discussion
The following summary was produced with the support of AI from a transcript of the event and checked for accuracy by a UK Evaluation Society team member who attended the session.
Please watch the full session to hear the discussion and examples in more detail.
From evaluation to decision-making
A recurring theme was the need to connect evaluation more closely to the decisions organisations need to make.
- Start with the decision and identify what evidence would help inform it.
- Build evaluative thinking in earlier, rather than evaluating only at the end of an intervention.
- Recognise that a formal evaluation is not always the right response. Learning reviews, change stories, after-action reviews and rapid lessons studies can also provide useful evidence.
- Develop evaluative capability beyond specialist evaluation teams, including among programme, policy and senior decision-makers.
- Give evaluators the confidence to make clear judgements and recommendations based on the available evidence, while being transparent about the strength of that evidence, uncertainty and any limitations.
Looking across portfolios
The discussion explored the shift from evaluating individual programmes towards understanding how different activities work together to contribute to wider outcomes.
- Portfolio-level evaluation can look across programmes, diplomacy, partnerships, technical assistance and other activities.
- This brings methodological challenges, particularly where outcomes involve multiple actors or emerge over longer periods.
- Contribution-focused approaches can help explore how different activities have influenced change without claiming direct attribution.
- Rigour remains important, including being transparent about evidence, uncertainty, alternative explanations and limitations.
Making better use of existing evidence
Another theme was the amount of evaluation evidence organisations already hold and the challenge of making it accessible when people need it.
- Better knowledge management can help connect evaluation evidence with research, monitoring and other sources of organisational knowledge.
- FCDO talked about its Eval Explorer, an AI-enabled tool bringing together more than 1,500 evaluations into a searchable evidence base.
- AI could support synthesis, analysis and access to institutional knowledge.
- Human judgement, transparency and the ability to trace findings back to original sources remain important.
Creating a culture of curiosity
The conversation also considered the organisational culture needed for evaluation to be genuinely useful.
- Evaluation findings that show something is not working can provide an opportunity to understand why and adapt.
- Making evidence accessible and relevant to real decisions can help encourage engagement with evaluation.
- Speakers discussed the importance of creating a ‘culture of curiosity’, where questioning, learning and responding to evidence are part of how organisations work.
Whose perspectives shape evaluation?
The discussion explored participation, power and whose perspectives are represented in evaluation.
- Who helps determine the evaluation questions?
- Who is involved in collecting and interpreting evidence?
- Whose definition of success is being used?
- How can the priorities and perspectives of partners be reflected throughout the evaluation process?
Key takeaways from the discussion
- Start with the decisions that evidence needs to inform, rather than starting with the evaluation.
- Be confident in evaluative judgement. Evaluators need to be able to draw clear conclusions and make recommendations from the evidence available, while communicating its strength, uncertainty and limitations.
- Look beyond individual programmes to understand how different activities contribute to wider outcomes.
- Make better use of existing evidence, including making it easier to find, connect and use.
- Use AI to support, rather than replace, human judgement, with transparency and traceability remaining important.
- Build evaluative capability more widely, beyond specialist evaluation teams.
- Create a culture of curiosity, where findings are used to question, learn and adapt.
- Consider whose perspectives shape evaluation, including who defines the questions, interprets the evidence and determines what success looks like.
Our thanks to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for partnering with us on the formal online launch of their Evaluation Strategy 2026–2030, and to all our speakers and panellists for sharing their insights, experiences and perspectives throughout the discussion.
A big thank you, too, to everyone who joined us and contributed questions, reflections and experiences to bring the discussion to life.
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