Numerous evaluations of natural environment policy and practice are commissioned by the UK and EU government in order to inform, develop and improve.
Typically these evaluations are dealing with complex “wicked issues” where that which is being evaluated is likely to have impacts that can’t be easily measured within the time frame of the evaluation; difficulty in unpacking causality and to be operating in less than perfect policy cycles.
CEP has been carrying out these types of evaluations over the past decade and as part of the CECAN centre took time to analyse 23 of their evaluations to learn lessons specifically around the evaluation of complexity, the role of methods and the nature of evaluation impact.
This brought out the key factors that affect evaluation progress and enable some understanding of how to navigate an evaluation through dynamic policy landscapes so as to provide value and insight.
In this seminar Dr Clare Twigger-Ross and Owen White from CEP presented the findings from that research and facilitated a discussion around the key findings and approaches for managing complexity in evaluations.
You can watch the seminar movie here: