44: Strategizing to Do More With Less in an Increasingly Turbulent Environment: Expanding the Toolkit for Program Evaluators and Program Managers/Decision-Makers

Our world is becoming an increasingly turbulent environment thus creating an even greater demand for human services. Simultaneously, programs everywhere are experiencing severe budget cuts/constraints. Additionally, many federal agencies in the USA (e.g., USAID) which provide local/international funding are being severed in 2025 which will negatively affect numerous social programs throughout the world. This may also affect the breadline for many evaluators. Today, funding crises everywhere necessitate that limited financial resources be stretched to do the same or more with less. Programs everywhere are struggling to survive. This year’s conference theme “Engaging Community, Sharing Leadership” is focused on enabling communities to grow, learn and innovate to improve outcomes. This presentation therefore aims to empower our communities of both program evaluators, as well as program managers/decision-makers, with tools, knowledge, and competencies that can help them to survive in an environment plagued with many wicked problems and exacerbated by financial constraints.

Nadini Persaud – Senior Lecturer in Evaluation, The University of the West Indies