Complexity in Evaluation: contributing to the new government guidance.
The Magenta Book 2020, an updated version of government guidance on how to evaluate policies, projects and programmes has just been published by HM Treasury. For the first time, this includes guidance on how to handle complexity in policy evaluation.
The Tavistock Institute worked closely with partners and colleagues in CECAN (Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus) in writing this supplementary guide on complex evaluation, as well as commenting on the content of the Magenta book, and particularly on a new evaluation capability framework for government analysts, as a member of UKES – the UK Evaluation Society.
Dr Dione Hills of the Tavistock Institute comments:
“It has been a great learning experience, combining our many years of experience in evaluation with the complementary experience of our colleagues from CECAN and Risk Solutions, in order to find a way to clearly communicate with a wide audience of readers, how understanding complexity theory can support both policy development and its evaluation”
- The Magenta Book 2020 Supplementary Guide
- Videos and presentation slides from CECAN’s launch event of the supplementary guidance on handling complexity in policy evaluation (3 March 2020)
- And for more information about CECAN and the development of the guidance
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