DRG TIG Week: Emergent Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Global & Domestic U.S. DRG Communities of Practices by Denise L. Baer

Date: Sunday, September 14, 2025

Hi – I am Dr. Denise Baer, a social scientist trained in methodology and practicing evaluator in the democracy, rights and governance (DRG) and gender sectors. The U.S. federal foreign aid freeze announced January 20th by the incoming administration has become a near extinction event for the DRG TIG. As an American Evaluation Association (AEA) DRG TIG Board member, we’ve tracked how many of our AEA members working globally lost their jobs with entire evaluation firms closed or downsized.  Here I share some lessons learned on both the challenges and new opportunities for DRG Community of Practice evaluators particularly around Evidence Informed Policy Making (EIPM).

As we prepare to celebrate International Democracy Day we see both gains and losses. The DRG community has discovered that our experiences were the harbinger of dramatic cuts to other domestic evaluation sectors from education to arts and culture, health and science and cancellations of rigorous evaluations. As documented by Devex and expert Wayan Vota, USAID was eliminated as has the DRG office within the Department of State (DoS) for being “ prone to ideological capture and radicalism” (relocating statutory functions elsewhere in DoS as “western values.”  Perversely, the Trump  administration is claiming to be the only  defender of “western values” with the preposterous assertion that European “governments have weaponized political institutions against their own citizens and against our shared heritage (sic).” Writing this as our federal capital city is occupied by the national guard and elected officials are being investigated, imprisoned on the floor of the Texas House or been arrested for conducting public business – the American policy shift devastating global foreign and humanitarian aid has also become a full-blown American democracy crisis.   

The good news: global standards around democracy, human rights and good governance persist and other regional Voluntary Organizations of Professional Entrepreneurs (VOPEs) like the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) have made strides in advancing standards-based evaluation and there remain global reinvention opportunities for DRG evaluators.

The paradox is that the U.S. rated by the World Economic Forum as the world’s oldest democracy is now at such risk. The U.S. lacks the same authoritarian roots found in the EU making it unique among Western nations. Some American leaders dispute on how to respond with some remaining oddly silent while others who do see problems emphasize technical voting reforms rather than structural/systemic changes. Expert advisories are indeed needed and AEA is listening and regrouping to expand public engagement so stay tuned!

Hot Tips

1. DRG evaluators should recognize that this is both an evaluative challenge and a market-based opportunity for experienced DRG evaluators who are skilled in thinking and working politically in engaging with BOTH government AND civil society.
2. DRG evaluators benefit by working within unique American EIPIM ecosystem strengths in university-based research and a robust civil society that predate the Evidence Act of 2018 including one of the earliest global VOPEs – AEA. The EU and the UN emphasize a top-down, government-driven EIPIM ecosystem – understandable as government needs to be a partner. But the distinctive American traditions of joining and less deference to traditional authority are DRG assets for resurrecting both democratic good governance and EPIM in the U.S.
3. The embrace of EIPM has only come to a halt at the federal levels!  States, local and tribal governments are enhancing EPIM. This market for state/local evidence-based decision-making nationally documented by Results for America,  Pew Results First initiative and others (e.g., the National Conference of State Legislatures and National League of Cities) is growing. As philanthropy steps up to rebuild grassroots democracy infrastructure, we expect new donor opportunities for DRG domestic evaluations.

The American Evaluation Association is hosting Democracy, Human Rights, & Governance TIG Week with our colleagues in the Democracy, Human Rights, & Governance Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our DRG TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.