Valuing and embracing complexity: How an understanding of complex interventions needs to shape our evaluation capacities building initiatives

Sanjeev Sridharan and April Nakaima

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2020, vol. 80, issue C

Abstract: This paper describes some of the main challenges of evaluating complex interventions, as well as the implications of such challenges for evaluation capacity building. It discusses lessons learned from a case study of an evaluation of Dancing with Parkinson’s, an organization that provides dance classes to people with Parkinson’s disease in Toronto, Canada. These implications are developed from a realist evaluation lens. Key lessons include the need to develop skills to understand program mechanisms and contexts, recognize multiple models of causality, apply mixed method designs, and ensure the successful scaling up and spread of an intervention.

Keywords: Evaluation capacity building; Complex interventions; Realist evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:80:y:2020:i:c:s0149718917301386

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2017.05.001

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