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Session Title: Valuing Evaluation in Non-Traditional Areas: Lessons for Evaluation Capacity Building
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Panel Session 469 to be held in Capistrano A on Thursday, Nov 3, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building
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| Chair(s): |
| Robert Lahey, REL Solutions Inc, relahey@rogers.com
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| Abstract:
Identifying key factors that serve as important elements to building evaluation capacity has been the focus of a recent study of the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). This capacity building framework will be presented and serve as a backdrop in examining the situation faced by organizations where historically formal evaluation has not resided. Increasingly, more organizations are being challenged to demonstrate good governance, accountability and, more recently, value for money in what they do and produce. Two cases of building evaluation capacity in non-traditional areas will be examined: (i) a charitable association in the voluntary sector; and, (ii) a small public sector organization that is also an independent watchdog of government. Among the lessons that will be drawn from the two cases will be lessons for building an evaluation culture in the context of volunteerism and lessons for 'valuing' evaluation and determining the appropriate capacity building strategy in small organizations.
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Developing Evaluation Capacity: Key Elements and Strategies Identified in Five Federal Agencies
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| Stephanie Shipman, United States Government Accountability Office, shipmans@gao.gov
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For two decades, federal agencies have been increasingly expected to focus on achieving results and to report on how program activities help achieve agency goals. Yet, GAO has noted limitations in the quality of agency performance and evaluation information and agency capacity to produce rigorous evaluations of program effectiveness. To assist agency efforts to provide credible information on program effectiveness, GAO 1) reviewed the experiences of five agencies that have demonstrated evaluation capacity-defined as the ability to collect, analyze, and use data on program results, and 2) identified useful capacity-building strategies that other agencies might adopt. In the agencies reviewed, the key elements of evaluation capacity were: an evaluation culture, data quality, analytic expertise, and collaborative partnerships. This paper will describe the various forms and importance these elements took in the cases we reviewed, and the various strategies that the agencies took to develop and improve their evaluation capacity.
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Building Evaluation Capacity in a Context of Volunteerism: Strategies and Challenges
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| Zita Unger, Independent Consultant, zitau@bigpond.com
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This paper will discuss the challenges of building an evaluation culture in a context of volunteerism and the strategies employed in developing evaluation systems.
Charitable associations often depend on volunteers to perform important social welfare functions in the community. The mission-based charity discussed here has provided recreation camps for disadvantaged youth and families for 30 years. The organization relies on young volunteer leaders to maintain its characteristic one-to-one ratio with participants on camp, volunteer board members to provide leadership and oversight of the organization, and a small executive team.
In recent times, financial support, traditionally underwritten by a religious order, became dramatically reduced with a requirement that the organization move towards self-sustainability. Issues of governance, continuous improvement, accountability and attracting major funding were seen as important, despite little prior experience of evaluation.
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Building a Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity in Small Agencies: Challenges and Strategies
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| Robert Lahey, REL Solutions Inc, relahey@rogers.com
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This paper addresses the challenges and lessons learned for evaluation capacity building in a small public sector organization where formalized evaluation has not historically resided. Faced with external pressures to demonstrate good governance, accountability and value for money in their operation, small organizations in the public sector face a variety of challenges, not the least of which is finding the right model that will work for their organization. The particular case examined is intriguing since it is not only dealing with a small agency, but one that serves as an independent government watchdog, a fact that some felt would be challenged by establishing an internal evaluation function. Despite the hurdles, a formal evaluation capacity has been introduced and the paper draws general lessons for other small organizations.
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