Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) involves more than just strategies that organizations implement to help their stakeholders—such as staff, clients, and funders—develop a comprehensive understanding of evaluation concepts and practices. ECD aims to create a culture of evaluative thinking that supports sustained evaluation practices within an organization.

The intersection of evaluation and communication needs to be explored thoroughly to understand what it means for the future of this ecosystem. But what exactly does this intersection entail? According to Better Evaluation, a strong communications strategy should encompass diverse aspects and techniques to discuss the evaluation results, structure the process to successfully share the results of the evaluation findings, and a few concrete questions that revolve around defining the objectives and goals of the strategy, ensuring that targeted audiences are clearly demarcated, what will be the frequency of dissemination, and what resources are available. These points can be applied universally to other sectors and engagement as well, but what makes evaluation and communication distinct?

The Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) Consortium underwent an in-depth journey to define Evaluation Capacity Development by diving into a thorough literature review. This exploration revealed a range of diverse definitions, each offering unique perspectives on how to build and sustain evaluation capacity within organizations and systems.