Whose values? Decision making in a COVID-19 emergency-management scenario

Crises may present unprecedented challenges that require people to think outside their traditional boxes. During COVID-19, many of us have seen officials and experts come together to share information and simultaneously respond to an emerging issue. For an evaluator working at the coalface of the pandemic response it can be an opportunity to draw from their kete (basket) of evaluation tools and matrices to support the decision-making process to be as defensible as possible. This praxis article describes the process of three evaluators reflecting and discussing one such scenario and exploring how an evaluation-specific tool based on normative ethical theories could provide some benefit.