Evaluation is an integral part of the international work of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). Not only is KAS rightly asked by funding bodies to monitor and legitimise the funds used. We ourselves have the greatest possible interest in further developing our projects and adapting them to target groups and constantly changing conditions.
At the same time, evaluation does not mean fundamentally questioning everything: At the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, we have been engaged in successful work abroad for over five decades - and this has not come about by chance. Evaluation can also provide answers to the questions of why we have often found the right approaches to a variety of issues in what are in most cases completely different scenarios on different continents, and why we have been able to respond to new challenges and realign ourselves.
Last but not least, KAS has already mastered many challenges: Why reinvent the wheel? Some office somewhere, some regional team or a particular group of colleagues must surely already have had some experience of any particular issue of concern! But where can we tap into this institutional memory?
Today, control is not at the heart of our approach to evaluation: Most of the time we all already have an idea of whether an approach in a project is good, whether the practice leads to appropriate results, or to what extent a change of direction might be necessary. We all have good ideas in the locker on how to move our work forward.
So what is lacking? Time, for certain - and perhaps also professional support when it comes to actually implementing such changes in direction or new ideas.
We can offer strategic time slots in our application/reporting, evaluation and training/qualification measures for expatriate staff, trainees, country officers and project managers from the Foundation offices. At the same time, we are fortunate enough to benefit from an abundant inbound flow of information on all facets of KAS’s work at home and abroad. Direct contact with the relevant offices in the ministries and other external actors also helps us in our work with KAS’s domestic and foreign structures.
