EVALUATION'S FUTURE PATHWAYS

Fostering innovation, integrity, and intelligence in a digital future

Our 2026 theme

Evaluation’s future pathways – innovation, integrity, and intelligence in practice

This theme invites us to imagine the future of evaluation by strengthening what only humans can do – our judgement, ethics, relationships, creativity, and storytelling – alongside new tools and technologies.

We’ll be exploring three intertwined “I”s:

• Innovation – experimenting with new approaches, roles, and tools (including AI) in ways that respond to real‑world complexity and community priorities, not just trends.

• Integrity – holding fast to evaluation ethics, mana‑enhancing practice, Te Tiriti commitments, and cultural responsiveness as the ground we stand on.

• Intelligence – valuing human insight, wisdom, and sense‑making: reading context, navigating power, building trust, and weaving findings into stories that move people to action.

At the heart of ANZEA 2026 is a simple idea: evaluation’s future will be shaped less by the tools we use, and more by the kind of humans we choose to be as evaluators.