Principles of evaluation
Several principles guide the evaluation of community engagement, as follows:
- Linking evaluation to planning and goals
- Isolating effects
- Community involvement
- Consistency and flexibility
- Evaluation related to inputs
- A structured process.
Linking evaluation to planning and goals
The effectiveness of engagement is best evaluated against original goals and plans for engagement activities (refer to Planning community engagement). Ideally, evaluation should be designed at the time of community engagement planning and be a part of the ongoing management and refinement of engagement activities.
Isolating effects
Many factors influence the engagement outcomes. For example, specific engagement activities may only partly lead to community members participating with government agencies. Other factors may influence their involvement, such as the level of organisation, community leadership or economic conditions. It is important to isolate, as much as possible, the actual engagement process from these other factors in order to get a true picture of the impact of engagement activities. You can do this by asking community people about other influences during feedback or gaining more detailed qualitative information during evaluation.
Community involvement
Evaluation has largely been perceived as an exercise undertaken by external expert evaluators. However, whenever possible, representatives from key stakeholder groups should be involved in the evaluation design and implementation. This includes:
- local community members, particularly those with higher levels of engagement
- public sector staff who engage directly with the community
- managers who make decisions about community engagement.
At the very least, the results of any evaluation of a project, including community engagement, should be appropriately fed back to community members for comment and input. You must have the flexibility to allow communities themselves to elect how they would like to evaluate outcomes locally. People can have input in designing how evaluation is done and/or gain information from other community members.
Consistency and flexibility
Evaluation of community engagement and program outcomes needs to include components that are consistent across programs or agencies. It also needs to also allow indicators and methods that can be tailor-made for particular situations and agencies.
Evaluation related to inputs
The extent of evaluation needs to be related to the original goals and the complexity of the engagement. A relatively small or simple engagement process would involve limited evaluation. More complex engagement arrangements would require more detailed evaluation. Evaluation can contribute to over-consultation; it needs to be appropriate to each situation.
A structured process
Good evaluations:
- are based on clear performance criteria
- weigh the evidence against the criteria
- apply systematic procedures to gather trustworthy evidence.
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