The AK-Demokratie in cooperation with PrEval invites you to this year’s summer conference. This year’s topic: “When practice meets theory”: Do we need more self-evaluation in democracy promotion?

In the practice of democracy promotion and extremism prevention, various elements of self-evaluation are already used as part of quality management or for internal learning and exchange processes. However, the issue of systematically developing self-evaluation as a competence and incorporating the data generated from it into external evaluations has only recently become the focus of clients, practitioners and researchers. This is due to two very different developments: firstly, the increasing acceptance of practitioners as equal partners in evaluation and experts in their own right. Secondly, the desire to gain access to data – e.g. target groups – that could only be collected externally at great expense, but are at the same time very relevant for determining, for example, target achievement and impact. 

Important questions that arise in this context include “How do practitioners assess their previous experiences with self-evaluation – as an additional time commitment that has to be made alongside their work or as a helpful element of learning project development?”, “What knowledge about the process and methods of self-evaluation, but also about standards and framework conditions, is important and how can this be meaningfully supported by academia?”, “What good practices already exist in project practice, also with regard to the implementation of knowledge gained from self-evaluation?”, “What are the opportunities and limitations of self-evaluation for commissioning parties?”, “Can self-evaluation be a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to external evaluations?”, “What other insights does it offer clients into project practice?”, “And how can possible risks (lack of objectivity, operational blindness) be limited in order to ensure reliable accountability to third parties?”

We will discuss this with representatives from academia, civil society and the relevant federal ministries. Above all, the conference aims to foster interactive exchange and provide an opportunity to network with colleagues from the PrEval network, the AK Demokratie and beyond.

The event will take place in presence (hybrid if necessary).

Registration until May 05, 2025.

Date: 5.–6. Juni 2025
Venue: German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), 4. OG
Address: Mauerstrasse 76 | 10117 Berlin

Contact:
AK Demokratie: Dr. Mirjam Weiberg (weiberg-salzmann(at)dezim-institut.de) & Dr. J. Olaf Kleist (kleist(at)dezim-institut.de)
PrEval: Dr. Andrea Prytula (prytula(at)dezim-institut.de)