Canadian Evaluation Society Project in Support of Advocacy and Professional Development

"How can program evaluation help my organization?"

"What exactly do program evaluators do, anyway?"

"What skills and knowledge do I need to conduct an evaluation?"

These seemingly innocuous questions have sparked some fiery debates over the years. This year, the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) has commissioned an exciting and ambitious project to shape some answers to these and other related questions. The goals of the project are to articulate and describe:

• the benefits of program/policy evaluation for various stakeholders;
• the evaluation "outputs" that lead to those benefits; and
• the knowledge elements that are needed to produce each output.

Most evaluators have an opinion about these topics -- and we'd like to hear yours. Even if it's different from ours. Especially if it's different from ours! These topics are worthy of thorough discussion, so we hope to involve many evaluators and evaluation users across Canada and internationally.

The two formal consultations for this project are now finished. The draft report is available for viewing on the Results Page. We welcome your feedback.

For more information about the project, contact Rochelle Zorzi (Principal, Zorzi & Associates) at 416-761-1024 or rochelle.zorzi@sympatico.ca.

Go to the CES Website