Designing and Implementing Evaluation Frameworks in Complex Settings

Summary

The demand for comprehensive and integrated evaluation frameworks is increasing. In a world where collaborative approaches are being used regularly to solve difficult problems, an integrated system of evaluation is essential for accountability, continuous improvement, and demonstrating value. It is common for multiple stakeholders to pool resources and coordinate efforts with the intention of working together to achieve a common goal. The challenges faced by those tasked with designing and implementing evaluation of such initiatives are varied and many. This workshop will teach participants how to design and implement frameworks that are rigorous, systematic, and theory based but remain flexible enough to meet multiple stakeholders’ needs and adapt to the unpredictability inherent in complex systems. Issues of stakeholder engagement, contract management, budgeting and resources for evaluation in such contexts will also be considered.

You will learn:

  • issues that need to be addressed in the design of evaluation frameworks that can be useful for large systems, complex programs, and initiatives that have multiple and diverse stakeholders
  • how to develop nested logic models to manage complex program theories and multiple theories of change in a single system
  • how to manage and guide implementation of complex evaluation frameworks including budgeting, procurement, stakeholder engagement and adapting to changing needs and priorities

Facilitators

Dr. Nancy Carter CE is the Director of Evaluation Services for the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation and current President of the CES Nova Scotia chapter. Her background in organizational behaviour, theory, and systems provides the theoretical understanding needed to assess and address challenges to evaluation at various levels of a system. As an evaluator, she has taught university courses, facilitated workshops for the CES conference; facilitated the ESS in NS and NL, developed PD sessions for CES-NS, and is locally and nationally sought to build evaluation capacity through workshops. A 10-week evaluation course that she developed for hospital program managers has been offered five times to date. The co-facilitators for this new workshop for CES will be Robert Chatwin CE, Past President of the CES-Nova Scotia chapter and Chapter Representative to the National CES Board. Robert is a Manager of Performance Accountability and Evaluation in Nova Scotia focusing on internal evaluation in federal and provincial contexts for the past ten years. The assistant facilitator will be Dorian Watts, the Program Chair for CES-Nova Scotia. Dorian is currently working toward qualifying for the CE designation.

You can contact Nancy Carter via email at nancy.carter@novascotia.ca

Language

English

Level

Intermediate

Prerequisites

  • Familiarity with the design and implementation of evaluation frameworks
  • Good knowledge of development and use of logic models, theories of change, and general evaluation methods and techniques

Schedule

Sunday, April 30 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Link to CE competencies for evaluators

  • Understands the knowledge base of evaluation (theories, models, types, methods, and tools)
  • Specifies program theory
  • Determines the purpose of the evaluation
  • Develops evaluation designs
  • Examines organizational, political, community, and social contexts