The EES was initiated in 1992 and registered in 1996 as a non-profit association. The first official board was elected in autumn 1995 and started its work in January 1996. Since the start of the Society, it has organized thirteen biennial conferences in many European countries (see here for details).
The mandate of the European Evaluation Society (EES) is to stimulate, guide and promote the theory, practice and utilization of evaluation in Europe and beyond. Our vision is a world where evaluation contributes to human welfare through learning. Specifically, the EES seeks to advance evaluation knowledge and to encourage adoption of good practices by fostering evaluation excellence, independence and partnerships. EES activities aim to support improved enabling environments for evaluation, stronger communities of practice, relevant evaluation research and enhanced evaluation methods.
This mission is aligned with recent changes in the policy environment. Evaluation in Europe is becoming an essential part of decision-making processes at national and Commission levels. Demand for quality evaluation services is rising. This trend parallels a remarkable burgeoning of evaluation initiatives at the international level. Increasingly, governments, private companies and voluntary organizations are resorting to evaluation to assess the merit, worth and value of their policies, programmes and processes.
In pursuit of its goals EES values creativity, diversity and inclusiveness. We focus on the promotion of ethically sound, culturally sensitive and action-oriented evaluation practices. We strive to be responsive to members’ aspirations and concerns and to forge connections among a wide range of perspectives and insights. We wish to be perceived as a regional hub for evaluation excellence and advocacy. We are intent on accelerating professionalization of the evaluation discipline and the development of evaluation capabilities.
Towards these ends we provide platforms for fulsome debate, for the dissemination of evaluation knowledge and for closer engagement with other disciplines. The website is the principal public face of EES and this will be more and more so in the future. The website functionality was recently enhanced with interactive features. Our newsletter “EuropEval Digest” is issued on a monthly basis. Through EuropEval Digest you can share your publications, articles, and blogs with our readers.; disseminate European evaluation news and connect with other like-minded professionals.
Last but not least EES organizes biennial conferences that have made their mark in the evaluation community. We also sponsor one day events that bring together evaluators, evaluation managers, evaluation commissioners and professionals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. Finally we reach out to other global, regional and national evaluation societies and networks and we give privileged status to evaluation initiatives that promote social justice, gender equity and democracy.