The International Conference for Realist Research, Evaluation and Synthesis (REALIST 2021) brought together researchers, evaluators and policy makers to share knowledge and develop a wider understanding of methods associated with the realist approach.
Itad was involved in two sessions in 2021:
- Climate Change Compass evaluation: Charles Michaelis (Itad) and Owen Davis (BEIS) ran a “knowledge cafe” session on the Compass evaluation, a portfolio-level evaluation of the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) programmes. They reviewed the key innovations from the evaluation and, through discussion with participants, identified lessons that can be applied more widely by the realist evaluation community.
- The benefits of a realist approach for complex evaluations: Mel Punton presented on Itad’s experience using realist evaluation for complex projects. The presentation reflected on the principles and practicalities of realist evaluation, drawing on lessons from four recent large-scale, multi-country evaluations.
The conference featured keynote talks and had two parallel streams for knowledge cafes, panel sessions and presentation.
If you are interested in finding out more about our experience with realist evaluation, read Mel’s blog ‘Reality bites: Lessons from five years of realist evaluation’.
If you want to know more about the Compass Climate Change evaluation methodology, read the Technical Report and join us for a webinar on 17 March.
