What It Means to Have an Effective Policy Program

Have you ever written a policy that took hours of research, conversations, and meetings and years to get approved? Then, months or even years are dedicated to implementation and operationalizing the policy. Program evaluation can take place at various stages of the policy process to assess progress, milestones, and data amongst other things. Then what? When do you evaluate your policy and related programs and how?

The most common stage for program evaluation to take place is the evaluation and termination stage, when policies are evaluated against how successful they were at meeting their objectives (Fischer, Miller, & Sidney, 2007). Program evaluations focus on the inputs (resources) and outputs because program implementations are meant to be successful and require resources, which are increasingly scarce. Focusing on the level of resources used against the outcomes is important to funders. In other words, what did we get for our money? Over the years, evidence-based reporting has increased in popularity amongst public and nonprofit sectors (Emerson, 2009). Organizations need to show apparent, demonstrated and proven effectiveness. Apparent effectiveness is the short-term result, indicating, through documentation, the program is being utilized (Emerson, 2009). Demonstrated effectiveness refers to measuring the impact of the program (Emerson, 2009). Lastly, proven effectiveness, a scientifically proven measurement of a program’s success (Emerson, 2009). Both demonstrated and proven effectiveness utilize a third party evaluator to gauge the effectiveness (Emerson, 2009).

After our last policy implementation, we regrouped with our customers and discussed areas for continued refinement, improvement, and revisions. Even though we sought input and held focus groups prior to implementation, we still had opportunity to improve.

As you prepare your next policy implementation, think ahead to how you evaluate your program. Can you deliver evidence-based reporting? Can you demonstrate the public policy need was met? To find out, engage with your stakeholders and customers before, during, and after to seek feedback. If data is available to help evaluate, utilize that as well.

References

• Emerson, J. (2009). But does it work? How to best assess program performance. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 29-30.
• Fischer, F., Miller, G. J., & Sidney, M. S. (2007). Handbook on public policy analysis. Boca Raton: CRC Press.