Building Evaluation Capacity
July 21, 2010
The Building Evaluation Capacity Program is a partnership between CAP, Earth Day Canada and Greenest City.
Clean Air Partnership would like to thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their invaluable support and promotion of the Building Evaluation Capacity Program.
Building Evaluation Capacity
In May 2006, Clean Air Partnership (CAP) and Greenest City with support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation launched the Building Evaluation Capacity project (BEC).The goal of the BEC project is to provide expertise and support to environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) interested in applying evaluation methodologies to their own projects and programs.
The BEC project is an evaluation process that provides ENGOs with an opportunity to increase their staff capacity to incorporate evaluation and documentation strategies and techniques into their project design and delivery. The BEC training program takes participants on a step-by-step process that supports their ability to assess their project’s strategies, activities, outputs and outcomes. The BEC training program then helps participants prioritize their project activities and outcomes and provides them with a better understanding of how their projects may be better able to serve its target audience and more effectively motivate individuals and/or influence public policy.
Building Evaluation Capacity Toolkit
The first phase of the BEC program focused on developing a Building Evaluation Capacity Toolkit. The toolkit was tested by the Clean Air Partnership, Greenest City and Earth Day Canada to test out its ability to improve the effectiveness of their projects.
Building Evaluation Capacity Workshop Series
In December 2007, Earth Day Canada, Greenest City and Clean Air Partnership received additional funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to expand the BEC project and
provide evaluation training to a larger group of ENGOs. In the second phase of the BEC project, ENGO partners participated in a series of training workshops to gain an in-depth knowledge of the evaluation process, logic model and theory of change and the roles these tools play in helping to build evaluation and documentation strategies into project design and delivery. Between September 2008 and May 2009 BEC provided a series of training workshops for the BEC ENGO partners.
provide evaluation training to a larger group of ENGOs. In the second phase of the BEC project, ENGO partners participated in a series of training workshops to gain an in-depth knowledge of the evaluation process, logic model and theory of change and the roles these tools play in helping to build evaluation and documentation strategies into project design and delivery. Between September 2008 and May 2009 BEC provided a series of training workshops for the BEC ENGO partners.
Based on the experiences and input of BEC partners that participated in the BEC worshop series a BEC Distance Education Training program was developed and is now being pilot tested.
The BEC program takes participants through an online workshop and assignment process that will help them answer the following questions:
- What do we do?
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Why do we do it ?
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Do we do it well?
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Who are we targeting?
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What results have we achieved?
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What stops us from achieving more?
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Are we doing the right things?
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What are the ways we can improve what we do?
All BEC workshops consist of:
- An online video presentation that summarizes the main elements of the workshop topic and provides guidance on the purpose and rationale of the workshop assignment(s).
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Pre-readings to build up your evaluation, program planning and documentation theory.
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Workshop assignment(s) that take you through a step-by-step process that will enable you to ask yourself the questions and generate the answers that will help you answer the above questions.
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Additional Resources that can provide you with more information and assistance if you are having difficulty completing your assignment.
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Review and feedback on Assignments (an additional cost is associated with this aspect of the training program).
BEC DETP Workshop Series
- Workshop # 1: Introduction to the Purpose of BEC and overall Evaluation and Project Planning
- Workshop # 2: Purpose and Role of the Logic Model
- Workshop # 3: Purpose and Role of Theory of Change
- Workshop # 4: Identification, Purpose and Prioritization of Indicators
- Workshop # 5: Developing an Evaluation or Documentation Plan
- Workshop # 6: Reporting to Colleagues and Partners on Evaluation or Documentation Results
If you are interested in helping pilot test the Building Evaluation Capacity (BEC) Distance Training Program please send an e-mail to gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org.