The Australian Red Cross (NT) Communities for Children Program, Nea Harrison, Panduanus Evaluation & Planning Services and the Palmerston and Tiwi Islands Communities for Children Local Committees were awarded the 2012 Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) Community Development Evaluation Award for Excellence last Thursday in Adelaide.
The Award was given for the participatory evaluation of the Palmerston and Tiwi Islands Communities for Children’s Activities.
The AES Awards for Excellence in Evaluation recognise exemplary evaluation practice, evaluation systems or evaluation capacity building in Australasia (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Pacifica).
The Awards Committee stated that “the evaluation was well-thought through extremely thorough and comprehensive. The evaluation indicated an understanding both of how an evaluation design contributes to community development goals, and how the use of community development processes enables the accomplishment of the evaluation. The details of the methods and techniques utilised (logic framework, quality rubrics, the Tiwi community report) display mastery.
The areas that stand out as exemplary and examples of good evaluative practice in similar evaluations include:
- Culturally appropriate evaluation design and methodology
- strong community engagement and input at all stages of the evaluation from inception to conclusion
- A developmental approach that was sensitive and worked in sympathy with the local community to enable outcomes that enabled an evaluation that was appropriate and integrated with community culture and values
- Closure and reporting back to the community
- Outcomes that resulted in sustainable benefits for local participants (e.g. leadership and skills development and capacity building)
- The use of advanced techniques – logic framework, quality rubrics, the Tiwi community report.
From inception to conclusion the evaluation was characterised by transparent practices, community involvement, good evaluative practice with the application of advanced techniques to elevate this evaluation to one of excellence and worthy of the AES Award for Excellence in Community Development.”
Pandanus Evaluation 