2015 Annual Conference of the Czech Evaluation Society (CES)

In June 2015 the fifth year of the Conference was held. Czech evaluation society has been organizing the conference together with Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague and since 2011 has become the most important evaluation event in the Czech Republic. Each year more than 100 participants attend approx. 15 lectures of the Czech and foreign speakers, carefully selected by the Conference Steering Committee; this year 110 participants took part at the Conference.

Usually the opportunities, prospects and alternative routes of future development of evaluations are discussed; recently the presentations on improving the utilization of evaluation reports or applicability of Capability Approach were given. Substantial attention is also paid to evaluation methodology and its advances. That is why the current contributions focused among others on outcome mapping and harvesting and behavioral approaches in evaluations. Further on, new methods and techniques in evaluation like e.g. most significant change technique or photovoice strategy were appreciated by the participants.

There were also other activities related with the CES Annual Conference. First, it was the poster session for those who wanted to present the case-study or evaluation that used unique design or inquiry that might inspire others. Another activity was the “bookstore” when it was possible to obtain actual evaluation literature, e.g. on impact evaluations or on local development initiatives. Furthermore, recent issues of the Czech peer-reviewed journal on evaluations (Evaluation Theory and Practice) were available. Satisfaction survey conducted among participants, shows that 93 % were overall satisfied (50 % very satisfied) whereas most of the participants expressed their satisfaction with professional level of the lecturers (96 %) and significance of the lectures (93 %). Response-rate in this inquiry achieved 49 %.

About Czech evaluation society (CES) 
CES is a non-profit, non-governmental and independent organization staffed only by volunteers without any paid employees. The main goal of CES is to associate individuals and institutions interested in evaluations. Members of CES are driven by their concern in building evaluation capacities within the Czech Republic, in increasing awareness about evaluations among relevant target groups, in improving reputation of evaluations as well as in advancing professional skills of practitioners and commissioners. CES represents the platform supporting cooperation with international associations and networks of evaluators, especially with NESE (Network of European Evaluation Societies), IDEAS (International Development Evaluation Association) and FoRS (Czech Forum for Development Co-operation).

Contact person: Jiri Remr (remr@czecheval.cz)

Photo from the conference.

Information provided by Jiri Remr, President of the Czech Evaluation Society