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Quality Seems to Be the Hardest Word: How One United Kingdom (UK) Funder Uses Evaluation to Achieve Policy Change
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| Presenter(s):
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| Andrew Cooper, Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, andrew.cooper@memfund.org.uk
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| Abstract:
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund is spending out its remaining capital and will close at the end of 2012. During this period, an ambitious set of policy change objectives have been set. As an advocacy funder, evaluation is vital in helping us to articulate campaign tactics, interim outcomes and broader lessons. However, we have faced considerable challenges in setting an appropriate level of quality for our research and evaluation work. There are a lack of evaluators who are experienced in advocacy work in the UK, and evaluation methods are not always suitable for assessing a contribution to policy change. We have had many debates about what quality means when evaluating policy change. Quality means different things depending on the intended audience of the evaluation, so we prefer to focus on issues such as the flexibility, timing, and potential uses of evidence when working with evaluators.
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Building the Advocacy Evaluation Capacity of Community Coalitions: Lessons Learned From the Northwest Community Changes Initiative
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| Presenter(s):
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| Ronda Zakocs, Independent Consultant, rzakocs@bu.edu
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| Christopher Kabel, Northwest Health Foundation, chris@nwhf.org
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| Noelle Dobson, Community Health Partnership, noelle@communityhealthpartnership.org
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| Susan Briggs, Independent Consultant, sbriggs@att.net
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| Abstract:
Assisting community-based organizations to evaluate their advocacy efforts continues to be a challenge. The presentation’s objectives are to describe and share lessons learned from the Northwest Health Foundation’s Northwest Community Changes Initiative designed to build the capacity of six community coalitions’ abilities to evaluate progress of their advocacy efforts targeting local policies promoting healthy eating and active living in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Inspired by a community of practice model, the Initiative facilitated several forums for collective learning: in-person workshops; peer-to-peer telephone conference calls; shared electronic work space; and tailored technical assistance. Over an 18-month period, all coalitions diagramed strategy maps, developed evaluation matrices, collected indicator data for at least one selected milestone, and drafted documents communicating milestones for targeted stakeholders. Data will be presented on the extent to which coalitions’ improved their advocacy evaluation capacities as well as the challenges experienced and insights gained by coalition members and consultants.
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Agent-based Modeling as a Tool for Evidence-based Public Policy Analysis
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| Presenter(s):
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| Andrea Hegedus, Northrop Grumman Corporation, ahegedus2cdc.gov
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| Jay Schindler, Northrop Grumman Corporation, jay.schindler@ngc.com
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| Abstract:
Public policy analysis is a powerful method to help evaluate and compare the impact of public policies. As the evidence base for public health interventions grows, linking programmatic and outcomes data to the creation and implementation of public policies provides solid grounding for these policies. Evaluation of evidence-based policies can be time consuming and costly. One tool to assess a policy’s potential outcomes and effects prior to implementation is agent-based modeling (ABM). ABM is one approach in the computational social sciences that allows modelers to simulate actions of “agents within environments” to assess their impact on various systems. This presentation uses concrete examples to show how ABM combines empirical data to compare policy alternatives by manipulating characteristics and interactions of subpopulations; the nature and extent of public health interventions, social and environmental variables, cost data; and other factors that exist within a system -- thereby improving policy makers’ decisions.
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