The Context

Developmental Evaluation (DE) is an approach to collaborative learning and decision-making in systems that are complex, quickly changing, or in crisis. It is a collaborative process to create a plan, gather data on an ongoing basis, and make evidence-informed decisions and adaptations based on the learnings.

The Community Partnerships, Innovation, and Advocacy team from Feed Nova Scotia was interested in adopting the practice of Developmental Evaluation to support learning and problem-solving cycles during the early, experimental phases of testing prototypes or implementing program concepts. The team identified the need for a structured process, but did not have past experience with evaluation methods and desired a hands-on leaning opportunity to begin to build their knowledge and skills in this area.

Our Work Together

Jane designed and facilitated two half-day interactive and participatory workshops with a small team at Feed Nova Scotia. The objective of the workshop series was to build foundational knowledge of Developmental Evaluation (DE) within the team so they are confident using it as an approach to support learning and adaptations in future projects. We also designed the process to be centred on case studies of projects the team was familiar with, so the concepts were applied and more likely to be used in the future.