Introduction to Program Evaluation

About the workshop

This workshop will help participants understand how to select the most appropriate approach when seeking to evaluate programs and policies. The focus will be on large-scale public-sector programs and the new methods used in their evaluation.

It will introduce participants to a range of evaluation methods, designs and measurement techniques, including both qualitative and quantitative methods useful for process, outcome and impact evaluations. It will also provide an introduction to the many frameworks that can be used to evaluate programs and policies. It will outline practical steps from program planning, through to developing and assessing evidence of effectiveness, and finally outline the process of scaling up interventions to reach a wider audience.

The workshop will include a particular focus on evaluating natural experiments, as well as complex programs.

The workshop will be interactive and participants are encouraged to consider and communicate their own evaluation learning needs before attending, as there will be an opportunity to have their questions answered. There will also be some pre-reading material provided and it is recommended before attending (around 2-3 hours of pre reading).

Who should attend?

The workshop will be valuable for policy makers and program managers/implementers with limited evaluation expertise who want to get a general understanding about contemporary approaches to program evaluation.

Session details

The session will cover:

• Principles of program evaluation
• Evaluation principles in practice
• More advanced evaluation concepts and methods:  complex programs

About the presenter

Adrian Bauman is Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, co-directs the WHO Collaborating Centre for Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity, and works extensively in chronic disease prevention research, in public health research translation and in the evaluation methods for complex (public health) programs. His expertise includes many years in health promotion program evaluation, physical activity research, epidemiological studies, and the evaluation of population interventions and behaviour change programs. He is very well published in the scientific literature, and has been named by Thomson Reuters (now Clarivate Analytics) as being in the top one percentile of the most cited researchers in any discipline in 2015-2018 inclusive.