Within the past five months, the global COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life, including the conduct of evaluation. In response to the crisis, the evaluation community has had to repurpose and adapt its approach to ensure its utility in the new world created by the pandemic. Evaluations that were ongoing or previously planned for 2020 will face several challenges that will require changes in all steps of the evaluation cycle. In addition, evaluation now has the opportunity to play a critical role by providing real-time information to inform evidence-based decision-making and facilitate learning in developing effective responses to the crisis. This will require innovation and “out of the box” thinking, as well as repurposing of existing tools and approaches.
