‘We still know very little’: New report calls for stronger evaluation of government programs, policies affecting Indigenous Australians
THE Productivity Commission has called for a whole-of-government framework to be established to more thoroughly assess the effectiveness of policies and programs affecting Indigenous Australians.
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THE Productivity Commission has called for a whole-of-government framework to be established to more thoroughly assess the effectiveness of policies and programs affecting Indigenous Australians.
The Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, released on Friday, sets out a new approach to better outcomes from government efforts to improve Indigenous Australians’ lives, which places Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people, perspectives and knowledge at its centre.
The report’s recommended actions include the identification of evaluation priorities at the agency level, the publication of all evaluation reports online within three months of completion, and the establishment of an online Indigenous evaluation clearing-house where all such information can be stored.
It also calls for the creation of two new bodies — an office of Indigenous policy evaluation and an Indigenous evaluation council entirely made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members — to work in partnership to identify evaluation priorities and monitor agencies’ results.
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There is currently no federal government-wide approach to evaluating policies and programs for Indigenous Australians.
The report stated that for all the federal government’s work in this space, after decades “we still know very little about their impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, or how outcomes could be improved”.
“While evaluation can provide answers on the effectiveness of policies and programs, both the quality and usefulness of evaluations of policies and programs affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are variable,” it stated.
“Evaluation is often an afterthought rather than built in to policy design, and this can affect data collection and evaluation design.
“Many evaluations also ask the wrong questions.
“Crucially, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people currently have limited input into evaluation planning, conduct and reporting.”
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Federal Treasurer John Frydenberg ordered the Productivity Commission to develop the strategy in April last year.
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