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Improving the Match Between Sustainability Questions and Evaluation Practice: Some Reflections and a Checklist
Author(s) -
Chelimsky Eleanor
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
new directions for evaluation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.374
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1534-875X
pISSN - 1097-6736
DOI - 10.1002/ev.20363
Subject(s) - sustainability , checklist , politics , public relations , psychology , public interest , political science , management science , economics , cognitive psychology , law , ecology , biology
There is increasing evaluative interest in assessing not just the current effectiveness of programs but also their likely sustainability. Assessing the likely sustainability of a program, however, requires methodological judgments about the future and about the influences of many complex political, economic, and social factors, which themselves are likely to change. While strong confidence in these types of prospective judgments may continue to be elusive, careful consideration of some major factors—including the cyclical character of certain public interest values and the predictable influence of special interest groups—should be helpful in improving the current ability of evaluation practice to address sustainability issues. This chapter ends with a checklist of seventeen questions to help focus attention on relevant, accessible, but often ignored, program or policy areas affecting sustainability.