1051 - Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change Initiatives: Concepts, Design Strategies, and Methods

Abstract Information: How would you go about assessing whether the work of an organization contributed to a policy change or if their advocacy is making a difference? There is no cookie cutter approach, but there are a lot of good ideas and a continuously growing bank of useful practices. Evaluation in the domain of policy advocacy continues to grow in importance and sophistication. It requires understanding the nuances of policy advocacy work, adeptness in navigating ever-changing circumstances, and knowledge of appropriate methods and personal biases. This Workshop is designed to help evaluators that are familiar with basic evaluation principles apply them effectively in the policy advocacy environment. Using the most recent research, practice, and case studies, workshop participants will build their knowledge and practice of key concepts, definitions, designs, and tools. They will leave with knowledge and tools they can begin to apply to advocacy evaluation right away.

Relevance Statement: Several factors have fueled the need for skilled evaluators that can design appropriate advocacy and policy change (APC) evaluations to meet diverse stakeholder needs: ongoing foundation interest in supporting APC initiatives to achieve systems change and equity goals; evaluation of democracy-building initiatives worldwide; and diffusion of advocacy capacity beyond the traditional advocacy community (such as nonprofits and service providers). And evaluators have met these needs with great success, building a new field of evaluation practice, adapting and creating evaluation concepts and methods, and shaping advocate, funder and evaluator thinking on advocacy and policy change in all its diverse manifestations. This Workshop is designed to build on this foundation of evaluation thought and practice, and expand individual evaluation capacity. We combine key concepts, definitions, designs, and tools, into a full-day, practice-focused workshop. Using Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation: Theory and Practice (Gardner and Brindis) as well as the New Directions Special Issue on Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation as core resources, the workshop will present options specific to evaluating advocacy and policy change initiatives. It will also highlight the challenges associated with evaluation practice, such as the complexity and the impermanence of the context in which advocacy activities occur, plus the challenges associated with attribution issues and identification of causal factors in the realm of policy.