The contemporary world is a reality of many accelerating and interconnected transformations. This is due to the constant movement of material resources, people, technology, and information. They lead to multiple diffusions, often revolutionary changes, the intensification of multiculturalism and disintegration but also the reintegration of institutional structures, cultures, and communities.

Some of these transformations are spontaneous and exuberant, but some are planned, managed, and intentional. They are the effect of programmed actions, although due to their diversity and often global scale, it is difficult to capture the complexity and multiplicity of connections that characterize them. Their global and macrostructural character is both the effect and the cause of transformations at local levels, the connection of which we see only after applying the analysis of large data sets.

However, this does not mean that these phenomena cannot be influenced; on the contrary, there is an increasing talk of the need for a global policy to change the shape and results of contemporary transformations. This applies not only to climate but also to industrial and agricultural policy, not forgetting educational activities or the protection of cultural heritage, which is understood as the achievements not so much of particular communities but of the broader human race.

To be an active element of this type of impact, following the vocation and specific function of evaluation, we must adapt both the form and strategy of evaluation thinking to these tasks, which, by evaluating various transformational activities and programs, itself seeks the transformation potential present in it. It materializes in the strategy and intention of the evaluation process, defining the values ​​and goals that motivate it through the ways of engaging its participants, and finally, the research methods and techniques.

This year’s Congress is organised by the Polish Evaluation Society in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. This is the fourth and very special edition. This year we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Society, and the Congress wants to be a contribution to the debate on the necessary way of selecting relevant criteria, which, like the general objectives of evaluation strategies, are changing civilisationally and represent an important type of challenge for contemporary evaluation. An important set of criteria is the entire range of values, standards, and needs in the field of sustainable development, i.e., criteria that take into account human-human relations, human-nature-culture, and human-technology-machine relations. There is a need for revitalization of the criteria promoted by democratic and dialogical evaluation, emphasized in the 80., in the form of criteria that take into account the underrepresentation of the vision and values ​​of marginalized, omitted, culturally excluded, or even socially diverse groups, emphasizing the need for inclusive evaluation goals.

Once again, there is a need to look at evaluation as a transformation, especially developmental evaluation, thus combining very different, modern and digitally supported “large-scale” methodologies with “socially sensitive”, “culturally responsive” evaluation, which does not lose its anthropological dimension and can be adequate in a specific context and social heritage, supporting rather than reducing its subjectivity.

Prof. Leszek Korporowicz, Honorary President of the Polish Evaluation Society

8.45 – 9.00 JOINING THE PARTICIPATNS (ZOOM PLATFORM)

9.00 – 9.50 WELCOME AND OPENING OF THE CONGRESS (plenary session) English / Polish interpretation

• 9.00 – 9.10 Opening speech – Monika Bartosiewicz–Niziołek, the President of the Board of the Polish Evaluation Society 
• 9.10 – 9.20 „Transformative potentioal of evaluation” (opiening leacture) – Prof. Leszek Korporowicz, the Honorary President of the Board of the Polish Evaluation Society / Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University 
• 9.20 – 9.50 Keynote Lecture Guest of Honour: Michael Q. Patton, Minnesota University, ex-president of the American Evaluation Association, Blue Marble Evaluation / Utilization-Focused Evaluation / International Evaluation Academy 

9.50 – 10.35 PANEL DISCUSSION WITH INTERNATIONAL GUESTS – Topic of discussion: “The Transformational Potential of Evaluation: Driving Meaningful Change” –  English / Polish interpretation

Moderation: Anna Augustyn – Polish Evaluation Society / International Academy of Evaluation (IEAc) 

• Dr Ian Goldman – President of the International Evaluation Academy / University of Witwaterstrand / University of Cape Town 
• Dr Rajib Nandi –Chairperson of the Community of Evaluators South Asia, and co-founder of the Evaluation Community of India 
• Ana Erika Lareza – Chair of the EvalYouth Global Network, co-founder of EvalYouth Asia and the Asia Pacific Communications Hub 

10.35 – 10.45 BREAK

10.45 – 12.15 PANEL DISCUSSIONS

PANEL 2: Title of the panel: Evaluation in education, moderation: Prof. Sylwia Jaskuła, Jagiellonian University 

PANEL 3: Title of the panel: Opportunities and risks in using AI in evaluation, moderation: Jacek Pokorski, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development 

PANEL 4: Title of the panel: Armed conflict in Ukraine and evaluation and related processes in Polish NGOs, moderation: Aleksandra Gutowska, Polish Evaluation Society 

12.15 – 12.30 BREAK

12.30 – 14.00 PANELE DISCUSSIONS

PANEL 5: Title of the panel: Good Practices in Evaluation of the Key Horizontal Principles, moderation: Monika Bartosiewicz – Niziołek, Polish Evaluation Society [PANEL IN ENGLISH]

PANEL 6: Title of the panel: PES Guiding Principles in dissemination practice, moderaction: Anna Kierzkowska – Tokarska, Polish Evaluation Society 

PANEL 7: Title of the panel: Failure as capital: How does productive failure shape public policies in complex systems? moderation: Prof. Magdalena Jelonek, Jagiellońian University 

14.00 – 14.15 BREAK

14.15 – 15.45 PANEL DISCUSSIONS

PANEL 8: Title of the panel: Inclusive and Participatory Approaches to Evaluation in the Context of Armed Conflict in Ukraine: Challenges and Dilemmas, moderation: dr Olha Krasovska, Ukrainian Evaluation Association [PANEL IN ENGLISH]

PANEL 9: Title of the panel: Evaluation in local government – specifics, prospects, potential, moderation: dr Tomasz Kupiec, Warsaw University 

PANEL 10: Title of the workshop: Evaluation of health policy programmes, moderation: dr Sebastian Łaźniak, MEDISEB / Cogito Med / „Sapere aude” Foundation 

15.45 – 16.00 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST CONGRESS DAY