CECAN Annual Conference: Policy Evaluation for a Complex World

Policy Evaluation for a Complex World, The Challenges that Complexity Poses for Policy – Solutions and Benefits

11th July 2018, 9.30am to 3.45pm, One Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London, SW1H 9JJ

Event Overview:

The world is complex: it is made up of many different components which interact in messy, adaptive and unpredictable ways.

Complexity poses great challenges to policy-making and evaluation because complex systems are fundamentally unpredictable. Ignoring it brings the risk of making costly inadequate decisions and policies failing unexpectedly. Understanding and embracing complexity means exploring uncertainty with rigour and the possibility of effective policy-making.

CECAN’s annual conference will showcase the latest developments in this fast evolving area, bringing together leading researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to explore what complexity means for policy and evaluation, and how it can be dealt with effectively.

Our keynote speaker Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, RSA will talk about the challenges of complexity for government.

Two panel sessions will discuss how well Government is dealing with complexity in policy making and evaluation, and what needs to happen to build capacity and enable better management of complexity in future.

Panel members will include: Penny Hawkins (Independent Evaluation Consultant), Gary Kass (Deputy Chief Scientist – Natural England) and Charlotte Allen, (Head of Central Social Research – DEFRA), Siobhan Campbell (Head of the Central Research Team, Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor, Department for Transport), Dione Hills (Principal Researcher – The Tavistock Institute),  Jonas Schönefeld (Technische Universität Darmstadt/UEA).

The benefits of ‘complexity-appropriate’ evaluation will be explored, including specific methods drawn from CECAN’s briefing note series and real world case studies carried out across Government. Presentations will include:

• Evaluation of Complex Policy and Programmes: A CECAN module for future policy analysts and evaluators – The CECAN Syllabus in an hour!
• CECAN and developing the Magenta Book Annex on dealing with complexity in evaluation – it’s complicated!
• Making evaluation real: Qualitative comparative analysis and environmental policy.
• Participatory systems mapping: exploring and negotiating complexity in evaluation with BEIS and Defra.
• Where do I start in navigating complex evaluation methods? Developing and using the Choosing Appropriate Evaluation Methods Tool.
• Finding Dynamic Patterns in Complex Social Systems.
• Improving theories of change to address complexity
• Putting values into evaluation

Concluding comments will come from Professor Eliott Stern and CECAN’s Director, Professor Nigel Gilbert.

Presentation Links:

• 1.1 Evaluation of Complex Policy and Programmes: A CECAN Module for Future Policy Analysts and Evaluators
• 1.2 Developing Guidance for Government on Dealing with Complexity in Evaluation– an Annex to the Magenta Book?
• 1.3 Making Evaluation Real: Qualitative Comparative Analysis and environmental policy (Case based methods Part 1):
  • A: Dave Byrne QCA as a Method for Dealing with Complexity
  • B: Clare Twigger Ross Investigating the Value of Qualitative Comparatative Analysis in Relation to the DEFRA FRCP Evaluation
  • C: Amy Proctor, QCA and the Environment Agency’s Evaluation of Waste Crime
• 1.4 Participatory Systems Mapping: Exploring and Negotiating Complexity in Evaluation with BEIS and DEFRA
• 2.1 Where do I start in Navigating Complex Evaluation Methods? Developing and using the Choosing Appropriate Evaluation Methods tool
• 2.2 Two New Advances in Finding Dynamic Patterns in Complex Systems (Case based methods – Part 2):
  • A: Phil Haynes Dynamic Pattern Synthesis
  • B: Brian Castellani Case Based Methods and Agent Based Modelling
• 2.3 Complexity, Policy and Evaluation in Practice: Improving Theories of Change to Address Complexity
• 2.4 Getting value, values and valuation into evaluation:
  • A: Richard Gunton, Adam Hejnowicz, The Pluralistic Evaluation Framework for Policy Impact Assessment, Appraisal & Evaluation
  • B: Nick Kirsop Taylor, The Criticality of Culture in Delivering and Evaluating Public Institutional Approaches
  • C: Andrew Darnton, The Difference Between Values and Value

Poster Links:

• Anna Kaxira – Complex Policy Interlinkages Between Anaerobic Digestion and Food Waste in the UK
• Betheney Wills – Case Study of the Marine Pioneer
• Brian Castellani – Case Based Methods and Agent Based Modelling
• Nick Kirsop-Taylor – The Criticality of Culture in Delivering and Evaluating Public Institutional Approaches to Managing Complexity Across the Nexus: The Case of Natural Resources Wales
• Richard Gunton – The Pluralistic Evaluation Framework
• Thomas Dixon – Democratising Complex Evaluation
• Henry Leveson-Gower – Trust in Water
• Joanna Boehnert – The Visual Representation of Complexity