Measuring Evaluation Capacity in Ontario Public Health Units

Abstract

This article presents a study of organizational capacity to do and use evaluation, conducted in 32 public health units in the province of Ontario. Methods include an organizational self-assessment using an instrument developed by Bourgeois, Toews, Whynot, and Lamarche (2013) as well as key informant interviews. Overall, our findings point to the fact that evaluation capacity is still developing in Ontario public health units; factors that support evaluation capacity in these organizations include the presence of an organization-wide evaluation policy, the availability of full-time evaluation staff in a supporting role, greater staff involvement in evaluation, and a standardized evaluation process. These findings highlight the importance of organizational structures and systems to evaluation utilization and provide potential areas of improvement for organizations wishing to improve their evaluation capacity.