Interorganizational evaluation capacity building in the public, health and community sectors

Abstract

Evaluation capacity building is generally conceptualized as occurring either at the individual or the organizational levels. However, ongoing societal crises require organizations within or across sectors to work together to find solutions to complex problems and to evaluate joint initiatives. Interorganizational evaluation capacity is required to ensure the ongoing conduct and use of evaluations to support interorganizational decision-making and improvement. This exploratory study describes and analyzes four cases of interorganizational evaluation capacity building initiatives in the public, health and community sectors in Canada and Denmark to identify their key dimensions. Preliminary findings highlight the importance of developing individual and organizational evaluation capacity as well as the need to provide stakeholders with interorganizational evaluation training and projects in which they can work together to better learn about each other’s organizations and challenges and find solutions to common problems.