Thanks Rhode, for your contribution. I agree that future-oriented evaluation cannot simply add scenarios or horizon scanning to an extractive process. It has to change who defines value, who interprets evidence, and who has authority over how findings are used.
The emphasis on shared ownership from design to use is also powerful. When communities and stakeholders co-shape the questions, methods, interpretation, and follow-up, evaluation becomes more than accountability to funders. It becomes a process of collective sensemaking and future-making.
The link to First Nations approaches reinforces that future-informed evaluation must be grounded in consent, relational accountability, local priorities, and self-determination. In that sense, ownership is not a procedural add-on; it is the condition that makes evaluation ethical, useful, and transformative.
RE: From Hindsight to Foresight: How Evaluation Can Become Future-Informed
Kenya
Steven Lynn Lichty
Managing Partner
REAL Consulting Group
Posted on 27/04/2026
Thanks Rhode, for your contribution. I agree that future-oriented evaluation cannot simply add scenarios or horizon scanning to an extractive process. It has to change who defines value, who interprets evidence, and who has authority over how findings are used.
The emphasis on shared ownership from design to use is also powerful. When communities and stakeholders co-shape the questions, methods, interpretation, and follow-up, evaluation becomes more than accountability to funders. It becomes a process of collective sensemaking and future-making.
The link to First Nations approaches reinforces that future-informed evaluation must be grounded in consent, relational accountability, local priorities, and self-determination. In that sense, ownership is not a procedural add-on; it is the condition that makes evaluation ethical, useful, and transformative.