Superu has worked in partnership with the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA) to develop a set of Aotearoa-specific evaluation standards that set out the expectations of the evaluation process, practices and products. The standards provide guidance on what should occur at all stages of a quality evaluation.
The establishment of the standards is expected to help promote good practice for evaluation and assist policy and programme development and delivery, The standards are part of a wider evaluation quality strategy that includes evaluator competencies, ethical conduct and guidelines.
The standards are a set of four high level principles. The core value underpinning the standards is that of evaluation with integrity which means that evaluation needs to consider the following:
- respectful, meaningful relationships
- ethic of care
- responsive methodologies and trustworthy results
- competence and usefulness.
Under each principle are five standards that make a total of twenty standards. They do not set detailed rules or procedures, allowing for differences of application in different areas.
The standards apply to commissioners of evaluation, evaluators conducting evaluation, participants within evaluations and users of evaluation outcomes.