Address: Tabor 7, c/o Radej Bojan, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija, info@sdeval.si.

I. Basics

I.1 Administration

SiES – Factsheet (scroll to Slovenia; redirect to IOCE – International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation).

SiES (ID code 2376784000/AJPES) has been established on 7. January 2008 in Ljubljana. SIES is non-governmental, not-for profit and non-professional voluntary organisation comprised of academics, practitioners and users of program and project evaluation in a variety of fields-regional and rural development, spatial, urban and landscape planning, education, social services, business, and others. Activity of SIES is based on voluntary contribution of its members (10+) and non-members (250+).

SIES is a member of Western Balkan Evaluation Network; NESE – National Evaluation Societies of Europe: IOCE – International organization for cooperation of evaluation.

I.2 SiES Structure

Society’s activities are organised in three permanent commissions:

1. Commission for ethical codex and evaluation standards (COD) – its tasks are to work on evaluation standards and ethical codex of evaluators;

2. Commission for evaluation (CET) – its tasks are to present results of evaluation studies and evaluate the evaluation processes;

3. Commission for evaluation studies (STU) – its tasks is to develop new knowledge in the evaluation and related areas (governance, programming, complexity, participatory processes etc).

The Society is publishing books and working papers on evaluation related issues.

I.3 Formal structure of the Society

  • Chairman of the COD – Jože Grabar Kos, spatial planner, publicist and activist.
  • Chairman of the CET –
  • Chairman of the STU – Bojan Radej, Independent researcher.
  • Secretary: prof. dr. Mojca Golobič, Biotechnical faculty – Dept. of Landcsape Planning/University of Ljubljana
  • Supervisor – Metod Dolinšek, International Consultant.
  • Chairman of the SIES – mag. Bojan Radej.

II. Vision and mission of the Slovenian Society Evaluation

Society operates as a platform of the civil society aimed at promotion of independent evaluation of public policies in Slovenia and in European union.

It has been established with the vision to affirm evaluation of social phenomena as complex. Complexity means that there are incommensurable viewpoints and values with regard to different social realities, such as economic, social and environmental, or local and global. Variegated forms of welfare need to be taken into account in evaluation which implies that ‘different principles of social primacy and legitimacy must be reckoned with and reconciled’ (Wacquant). When confronted with multidisciplinarity of social issues, even the most competent, honest and disinterested evaluators may arrive at different conclusions because of systematic differences in the way they summarise available information (Kuhn). When values are based on incommensurable oppositions, there is no objective basis for rational choice between theories (economic, social, …) and than no neutral observation of social reality is possible.

In the social studies facts do not speak for themselves like they appear to do in physics but they provide only a frame for reasonable judgment. What precedes scientific research and what follows it is inherently linked to valuation (Hollis). Scientific practice is concerned with the search for causes and laws, while evaluation is concerned with the search for meaning (Winch). The art of evaluation in particular lies in ensuring that the measurable and commensurable do not drive out the immeasurable (Matarasao) and incommensurable.

SiES vision is to emphasise evaluation of complex policy concerns. Its mission is to develop a framework, tools, skills and practices that forward complex policy evaluation.

III. Regular Activities

III.1 Public Meetings (recent; Slovenian language)

III.2 Publishing

III.2.1 The Working Papers (ISBN 978-961-92453). It publishes scientific and technical papers from the aspect of evaluation of public policies and from related disciplines. Already published (English titles – in bold)

III.2.2 Blog (Medium.com)

III.2.3 Evaluation forum (LinkedIn Group)

III.2.4 Books

IV. SiES and International cooperation

IV.1 The regional evaluation network in Western Balkan (WBEN).

  • SiES has been initiator of regional cooperation in Western Balkan’s six countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia. See https://www.sdeval.si/category/weben/. Evaluation societies in Croatia, Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Montenegro have been established based on efforts initiated by SiES.
  • SiES is an organiser of the fifth WBEN evaluation conference. It will be held in Ljubljana, 29-30 September 2023.

IV.2 SiES is a founding member of the NESE – Network of Evaluation Societies in Europe.  

IV.3 SiES is a member of the IOCE – International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation

V. Achievements:

–        Council of Europe has Applied the intervention logic proposed by Slovenian Evaluation Society

–        Our Book “Vrednotenje politik” Declared as one of scientific achievements in Slovenia in 2012

–        Users Of mesoscopic approach to evaluation and social research

VI. SiES’ Services:

–        Free evaluation support to NGOs in Slovenia

–        Evaluation education and trainings (in Slovenian, Serbo/Croatian, English)

 

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