An introduction to policy advocacy evaluation: The concepts, history, and literature of the field
AbstractThe development of a field of practice for policy advocacy evaluation has been relatively recent within the evaluation community. Given various unique elements, policy advocacy necessitates an adaptation of contextual understanding, methods, and use elements for evaluation practitioners. The authors of this article describe the individual elements that define the space and discuss the origins and development of advocacy evaluation within the evaluation community. The authors then review a broad (though not comprehensive) swath of the existing literature on the topic. (Source: New Directions for Evaluation)
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Jared Raynor,
Julia Coffman,
Sarah Stachowiak Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
A learning agenda for the advocacy evaluation field's future
AbstractThis volume set out to document, illustrate, and critique the progress and innovation that has occurred during the advocacy evaluation field's first phase of development. This final chapter identifies how the context in which advocacy evaluation plays out is shifting. It describes how these shifts impact how advocates, advocacy funders, and advocacy evaluators think about what works, and what has value. Given this context, and lifting up the ideas of other chapter authors, the chapter concludes with a learning agenda for the field's next phase of development —four questions to help guide future field innovation a...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Julia Coffman,
Sarah Stachowiak,
Jared Raynor Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
As technology disrupts equity, advocates take action: Where do evaluators fit in?
AbstractAdvocacy is rapidly evolving for many different reasons, ranging from increasing polarization and existential threats reaching crisis points to shifts in whose voices are heard and how much advocates focus on building power. One of the seismic changes in advocacy that cuts across all of these issues, and influences governance practices more broadly, is the rate of technological advance, which is faster than ever before. Some advocates are shifting their practices, staying abreast of technological advances, attending to how they are influencing equity, and even using emerging technologies as part of their strategies...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Jewlya Lynn,
Twisha Mehta Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Pushing boundaries: Advocacy evaluation and real ‐time learning in an HIV prevention research advocacy coalition in sub‐Saharan Africa
This article describes the experience, lessons, and trajectory of one such approach, Simple, Participatory Assessment of Real Change (SPARC), that a transnational HIV prevention research advocacy coalition pilot-tested in sub-Saharan Africa. Inspired by the pioneering work of the outcome harvesting (OH) and participatory evaluation community, we recuperate advocates' centrality as storytellers, sense-makers, and strategists in advocacy evaluation and describe how we recalibrated SPARC to meet their evaluation and learning needs. This article highlights the normative value of deliberative discourse in evaluation as it contr...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Jules Dasmari ñas,
Rhonda Schlangen Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Evaluating power building: Concepts and considerations for advocacy evaluators
This article explores the theoretical contributions and methodological considerations of evaluating power, drawing from our experience evaluating nine community organizations' power-building work focused on economic justice policy reforms. We conclude that four considerations can reorient evaluations to the role of power: (1) grounding power evaluations in equitable evaluation, (2) expanding the scope of evaluations beyond a focus on policy wins to examine individual and collective liberation, (3) incorporating frameworks that acknowledge and assess the iterative and cyclical nature of power building, and (4) clarifying th...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Katie Fox,
Margaret Post Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
The art and science of developmental and advocacy evaluation
AbstractOver the past 15 years, the field of advocacy and policy change (APC) evaluation has evolved considerably in terms of refining the purpose and methods of this type of evaluation. At the same time, the dynamic nature of APC work requires evaluators to draw upon a range of evaluation approaches, including systems thinking, developmental evaluation, and participatory evaluation, among others. Developmental evaluation is particularly well-suited for an APC context given its focus on documenting complexity and establishing frequent feedback loops. Previous research has highlighted the value of APC and developmental eval...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Sonia Taddy ‐Sandino,
Anna Saltzman,
Shayla Spilker Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Who puts the value in Evaluation? The need for self‐reflection and transparency in advocacy and policy change evaluation
AbstractAdvocacy and policy change evaluators navigate uniquely complex environments, made up of layers with many moving parts, and are actors typically in highly political spaces. Evaluators bring their unique components to the evaluation in the form of values, biases, and belief systems that are continually constructing the identities they take on within these environments. In turn, those identities influence which roles evaluators will take, such as collaborator or advocate, and bring biases that have the potential to impact their behavior and decision-making as they evaluate advocacy and policy change endeavors. The au...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Elizabeth Taylor ‐Schiro ‐ Biidabinikwe,
Aneta Cram Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
A radical arc in systematically documenting political context in advocacy evaluation
AbstractTen major global forces are fixed within the current political context: racial capitalism, neo-slavery, neoliberalism, white supremacy, neofascism, neocolonialism, neo-feudalism, imperialism, corporatism, and radical imagination. These forces have been underexamined in the current advocacy evaluation practice, creating missed opportunities for evaluation as a tool for liberation. Attending to these forces and the logics underpinning them should be a new arc within the advocacy evaluation field. Expanded evaluator skills, tools, and methodologies are needed to fully assess advocacy theories of change, campaign activ...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Nicole Robinson Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Radical rerouting: New roads for advocacy evaluation
This article discusses the evolution of evaluation of advocacy and its alignment with different parties ’ interests in rigor, participation, and usefulness. We then explore responses to our paper,No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways of Advocacy Evaluation, which sought to reframe advocacy evaluation concepts and analytic frames in ways that take into account the complex contexts in which advocacy takes place. We suggest that a narrow conception of power is acting as a fundamental barrier to evaluation approaches that enable and support transformative advocacy. The article concludes with an argument t...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Rhonda Schlangen,
Jim Coe Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Bricolage: A pluralistic approach to evaluating human ecosystem initiatives
This article presents a reflection on the use of bricolage in two case illustrations. An eclectic approach,bricolage can be used as atransdisciplinary, mixed paradigm approach for reconciling the different ontological ( “real world”) and epistemological (“theory of knowledge”) perspectives that complexity science and systems thinking bring to evaluation. Bricolage can be used in all four elements of evaluation design: (1) theoretical frameworks, (2) inquiry frameworks, (3) methods and metrics, and (4) value s and valuing in evaluation. Bricolage can be applied to the choice of conceptual frameworks that define an e...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 2, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Margaret Hargreaves Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: New Directions for Evaluation)
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
Editors ’ notes
(Source: New Directions for Evaluation)
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Emily F. Gates,
Mat Walton,
Pablo Vidueira Tags: EDITORIAL Source Type: research
Developing indicators to evaluate systems thinking and application in state injury and violence prevention programs
We describe our process for developing this model and indicators, drawing from both research and practice-based evidence on systems thinking, and offer a set of indicators for measuring organizational-level systems thinking in the context of public health practice. (Source: New Directions for Evaluation)
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Natalie J. Wilkins,
Rachel A. Kossover ‐Smith,
Sandy‐Asari Hogan,
Robyn Espinosa,
Lauren F. Wilson Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Systems thinking and complexity science –informed evaluation frameworks: Assessment of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food
AbstractDespite the increasing literature, applications, and discussions over the last 15 years, there remain questions about how to bring systems thinking and complexity science (STCS) into evaluation in ways that meaningfully enhance its practice, use, and results. One pathway forward is bridging the gap between the large STCS body of knowledge and evaluation practice by synthesizing STCS insights into actionable frameworks to support the work and role of those engaged in evaluation activities. This chapter aims to contribute to this challenge through two main goals. First, the authors develop an actionable STCS framewor...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Mar ía Bustamante,
Pablo Vidueira,
Lauren Baker Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
Insights and future directions for systems and complexity ‐informed evaluation
This article identifies themes across case examples to identify emergent patterns and opportunities for the continued development of evaluation practices that draw upon STCS. Each article describes STCS and its applications within specific evaluation contexts. Our review across cases identified three themes: (1) the importance of setting boundaries around what is included and excluded from within the STCS field in a specific evaluation; (2) using STCS concepts and theories to enhance program and evaluation theory, and (3) broadly drawing upon STCS to support changes in systems and develop capacity within organizations. Whi...
Source: New Directions for Evaluation - September 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Mat Walton,
Emily F. Gates,
Pablo Vidueira Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research
