Environmental Program And Policy Evaluation Addressing Methodological Challenges

Although environmental policy and program evaluation emerged rather late compared to many other areas of public policy, an energetic evaluation community in the environmental field has emerged during the last decade. This is a community of evaluators with diverse backgrounds in environmental sciences, social sciences, and general evaluation. Evaluation in the environmental field is characterized by complex policies and programs around wicked problems. They exist within complex systems composed of interacting environmental and socioeconomic systems. In furthering the state of evaluation in the environmental field, this issue of focuses on key methodological challenges: time horizons scaling data credibility research designs and counterfactuals Contributors look at each challenge with two chapters, to enhance a pluralistic discourse for development of the theory and practice of environmental evaluation. The authors?from Australia, Europe, and North America?represent the diversity of the community with respect to their formal training, personal experiences, and institutional affiliations. The issue concludes with two commentaries reflecting on the discussions in relation to that of contemporary evaluation in general and a summary of the insights for the future of environmental evaluation. These chapters cumulatively hold promise for furthering the quality of evaluations not only in the environmental field but in other fields as well. This is the 122nd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

Context is a force in evaluation. It shapes our practice, influencing how we approach and design our studies, how we carry them out, and how we report our findings. Context also moderates and mediates the outcomes of the programs and policies we evaluate. This issue focuses squarely on the role that context plays in practice and illuminates its effect on the implementation and outcomes of programs. Exploring the ways in which attending to context may improve the quality of evaluation practice, the contributions span theory, methods, and practice in an effort to move to a more comprehensive conceptualization of context that can guide our work. It: Provides an historical and theoretical view of evaluators’ treatment of context Illustrates how context has influenced evaluation practice Presents a five-area framework for guiding a contextual analysis of evaluations Introduces “context assessment,” which provides a means of integrating context and its implications within the important stages of evaluation. This is the 135th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

More than twenty years after the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, both national and international actors in governmental and nongovernmental fields are still searching for insights into how sustainable development can be advanced and environmental concerns incorporated into the development agenda more effectively. Moreover, climate change has emerged as a preeminent challenge to both the environment and to development. Evaluating Environment in International Development provides international perspectives and in-depth knowledge of evaluating development and the environment and applies evaluation knowledge to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The book focuses on the approaches and experiences of leading international organizations, not-for-profits, and multilateral and bilateral aid agencies to illustrate how systematic evaluation is an essential tool for providing evidence for decision-makers. It provides novel and in-depth perspectives on evaluating environment and sustainability issues in developing countries. Moving beyond projects and programmes, it considers aspects such as evaluating normative work on the environment and evaluating environmental consequences of economic and social development efforts. This original collection should be of interest to scholars of environment studies, development studies, international relations, sustainable development and evaluation, as well as practitioners in international organizations and development and environmental NGOs.

This book focuses on methods of choice in program evaluation. Credible methods choice lies in the assumptions we make about the appropriateness and validity of selected methods and the validity of those assumptions. As evaluators make methodological decisions in various stages of the evaluation process, a number of validity questions arise. Yet unexamined assumptions are a risk to useful evaluation. The first edition of this book discussed the formulation of credible methodological arguments and methods of examining validity assumptions. However, previous publications suggest advantages and disadvantages of using various methods and when to use them. Instead, this book analyzes assumptions underlying actual methodological choices in evaluation studies and how these influence evaluation quality. This analysis is the basis of suggested tools. The second edition extends the review of methodological assumptions to the evaluation of humanitarian assistance. While evaluators of humanitarian action apply conventional research methods and standards, they have to adapt these methods to the challenges and constraints of crisis contexts. For example, the urgency and chaos of humanitarian emergencies makes it hard to obtain program documentation; objectives may be unclear, and early plans may quickly become outdated as the context changes or is clarified. The lack of up-to-date baseline data is not uncommon. Neither is staff turnover. Differences in perspective may intensify and undermine trust. The deviation from ideal circumstances challenges evaluation and calls for methodological innovation. And how do evaluators work with assumptions in non-ideal settings? What tools are most relevant and effective? This revised edition reviews major evaluations of humanitarian action and discusses strategies for working with evaluation assumptions in crises and stable program settings.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of climate change adaptation (CCA) poses an assortment of thorny methodological challenges. Individually, none are unique to CCA, but together they represent a very distinctive conundrum facing practitioners and policy makers. Adding to this complexity further, climate change may be global in nature but its impacts, and how we respond to them through adaptation efforts, cut across scales, sectors, and levels of intervention. As investments in climate adaptation increase, organizations are seeking to measure, assess and understand an array of adaptation initiatives, and derive learnings to inform policy and praxis. This issue presents findings from many of the most important contemporary CCA program evaluation research initiatives. The chapters represent the most coherent and current collection of CCA M&E research in this emerging and important field, written by many of its leading experts. Filled with examples and insights in formulating coherent responses to methodological challenges, it will be of interest to M&E scholars and practitioners globally. This is the 147th issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

New York City's municipal water supply system provides about 1 billion gallons of drinking water a day to over 8.5 million people in New York City and about 1 million people living in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange counties. The combined water supply system includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes with a total storage capacity of approximately 580 billion gallons. The city's Watershed Protection Program is intended to maintain and enhance the high quality of these surface water sources. Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program assesses the efficacy and future of New York City's watershed management activities. The report identifies program areas that may require future change or action, including continued efforts to address turbidity and responding to changes in reservoir water quality as a result of climate change.

Policy evaluation is an important and well-established part of the policy process, facilitating and feeding back to promote the ongoing effectiveness of policies that have been implemented or anticipating policies in the making. Environmental policy is a special case, presenting new complexities uncommon to other areas, which standard evaluation tools are ill-equipped to grapple with. It is also an area that is experiencing rapid growth throughout the world and knowledge is now needed at all levels of government and in NGOs, businesses and other organizations, all of whom are required to assess the effectiveness of their policies.This handbook is the first guide to environmental policy evaluation in practice. Beginning with an introduction to the general principles of evaluation, it explains the particular complexities native to the environmental sphere and provides a comprehensive toolkit of evaluation methods and techniques which the practitioner can employ and refer to again and again. The authors also consider design issues which may face the policy evaluator, including involvement of stakeholders, the sensitivities between them, the a priori assessment of the evaluability of a field, the maximization of the utilization of the evaluations outcomes, and much more. Throughout, the theory is illustrated with practical examples from around the world, making this the essential companion guide for anyone tasked with ensuring that environmental policy fulfils its aims and achieves its potential.

Efficiency, economy, and equity are policy goals pursued by governments around the world, but analysts and evaluators have devoted more effort to measuring and evaluating the first two. In Speaking Justice to Power, contributors examine the concept of equity, the role it plays, and its application in policy evaluation. Here some of the most valuable thinkers in the area of policy studies address key questions: How should evaluators develop criteria for measuring equity as they analyze both program and policy implementation as well as their impacts? What distinctions among people should be taken into account when measuring and valuing impacts? What sorts of data should be used to analyze processes and impacts in different settings? How might such data be validated? The contributors employ grounded-theory thinking as they translate key ethical principles into their work and draw important lessons from their experiences. The work discusses equity in interventions addressing a variety of social and environmental problems. This volume continues the fine tradition of Transaction's Comparative Policy Evaluation series.