From Theory to Practice: Examining the Development, Implementation, and Impact of Evaluation Policy

Abstract Information: For almost 50 years, evaluation has been a central function of the Government of Canada given its key role in the government’s expenditure management system and public reporting activities. This has resulted in the development of centralized federal evaluation policies to direct evaluation practice across federal departments and agencies. Federal evaluation policies outline legislative requirements, as well as general expectations and guidelines for the federal evaluation function. Generally, these policies include the purpose of evaluation, the issues to be addressed, evaluation timelines, governance structures, evaluation capacity including expertise, the use of evaluations, as well as roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities. In 2009, Trochim argued that developing well-informed evaluation policies that can guide evaluation practice may be the most important issue facing the field of evaluation and issued a call for evaluation practitioners to get serious about evaluation policy and its relationship to practice. Despite this argument, there remain ongoing gaps in the research surrounding evaluation policy, including studies that examine evaluation policies and evaluation capacity from an empirical perspective to enrich and improve understanding and discourse in these areas. Recently, Christie and Lemire issued a call for more awareness, discussion, and analysis of the relationship between evaluation theory, policy, and practice (2019). My research aims to respond to this call with an empirical examination of the theory-policy-practice connection as it relates to the Government of Canada’s current Policy on Results. It begins with an assessment of the six evaluation policies implemented by the Government of Canada since 1977 and the extent to which evaluation policy has evolved over time. This assessment also involves the identification of the various evaluation theories that were likely espoused by policymakers over the last five decade, corroborated by federal guidance documents for the evaluation function. Next is an examination of how this policy was interpreted and implemented by evaluation practitioners and users, and its role and impact on the capacity to do and use federal government evaluations. Examining the perspectives of users in conjunction with systemic changes within the evaluation function will help determine the extent to which the policy increased the utility of evaluations within the federal government and whether there have been changes in how evaluations were perceived, received and used. Findings will contribute to the literature by providing a better understanding of the relationship between evaluation policy and organizational evaluation capacity. Additionally, the focus on the Canadian federal government is expected to contribute to the literature regarding evaluation policy and capacity in this context.