Range of methodologies

A strong focus of the firm is the use of a wide range of methodologies for evaluation and social research and in remaining informed and responsive to new developments in our discipline.

Our staff belong to the Australasian Evaluation Society and frequently present papers at workshops and conferences. The team covers the disciplines of evaluation, communication, organisational behaviour, economics, anthropology, sociology, law and natural resource management.  This allows us to evaluate programs that have economic, social and environmental (triple bottom line), outcomes.

Clients

Our clients include Federal and state government, catchment management authorities, statutory bodies and rural research and development corporations.

Evaluation

Program and project evaluation
We have conducted over 80 studies using a wide range of data collection tools and forms of analysis.  In our view, these projects, and our knowledge of the relevant literature in our fields of expertise, place us in a good position to make insightful and useful recommendations to our clients.

Qualitative and quantitative methods
While we specialise in qualitative research, we use quantitative methods for data collection and analysis as required.  We employ SPSS and Excel software and we have staff with particular expertise in quantitative methods.

Evaluation frameworks, training and support
Commonly we are called upon to design evaluation frameworks for clients and to support internal evaluation through training and advice. The emphasis is on conducting a participative process to encourage on-going evaluation. We are very supportive of self evaluation.

Program design
An important facet of our work is to critique the program logic or theory behind a particular program to see if it is likely to achieve its objectives given the planned activities, the intended timeframe and its strategic alignment with the organisation’s wider plans and imperatives.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting & Improvement (MERI)
Our staff are trained in the MERI process and the firm is one of the approved providers of MERI training approved by the Department of Environment and Water Resources. Staff have been involved in the design of MERI frameworks but also in evaluating the outcomes according to the MERI structure.  This has given us particular knowledge of what works and what the pitfalls are. 

Social research

Our evaluation and social research arms strongly complement each other.  We have expertise in the following areas:

• Needs assessments
• Stakeholder analysis
• Network analysis
• Social Impact assessments
• Social aspects of programs that have triple bottom line outcomes.
  
  

Advice and support

Apart from evaluating programs we provide advice and support in their design and delivery in the fields where we have content knowledge.  Content knowledge includes adult learning, community engagement, communication, organisational behaviour, cost benefit analysis, economics and action learning/action research. 

Training

We conduct in-house evaluation training for clients which can cover all aspects of evaluation or are tailored to suit specific needs such as data collection or analysis. Always the objectives of the particular type of project or outcome shape the methodologies suggested. Often evaluation capacity building is associated with other work that we might carry out for a client such as the development of the evaluation framework or program design.

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