The encounter with two of the people behind Tamkeen last week has stayed with me and reverberated. It has stimulated further thoughts, for example on the role(s) of evidence. It has gotten me to a point where I’m holding two seemingly contradictory truths around evidence.

There is the view that evidence is needed for us to show that we are spending our money well and that we are making a meaningful difference in the world together with our partners. 

This is the view of evaluation as a means of proving that change happened, of analysing our contribution to change, and of establishing value for money – are we doing those things that generate the greatest effect possible with the necessarily limited amount of money we have at our disposal?

This is the thinking behind effective philanthropy. The field of evaluation has become really good at answering questions to this effect, and I’m particularly interested in how these relevant question can be answered while still seeing the world as complex and emergent rather than linear and predictable.