Government Eval TIG Week: Evaluation Advisory Groups are the way to go, but planning is key by Chris Voegeli
Hi, I am Chris Voegeli, and I’m an evaluation fellow in the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the last year, my Canadian Evaluation Society colleagues Gene Krupa, Barbara Szijarto, Margo Schmitt-Boshnick, and I reviewed the literature and used our personal experience to think critically about Evaluation Advisory Groups (EAGs). Before joining the CDC Evaluation Fellowship Program, I led the National Evaluation Center for the National Network of STD Clinical Prevention Training Centers. While at the National Evaluation Center, we used several types of EAGs in our work regularly. I learned that the purpose of an EAG guides the planning and implementation of the advisory group. It’s important to identify the right people to achieve that purpose. If you are looking to enhance or support the methodological or technical quality of the evaluation, recruit seasoned evaluators familiar with the evaluation of programs similar to yours. If you are interested in generating regular and rich input in decisions throughout the evaluation, create an EAG of representatives of key stakeholder groups. When you have multiple funders with competing interests or informational needs, it can help to have an EAG that brings funders together to talk about the evaluation or address evaluation-related issues as they arise. Perhaps you need an EAG that meets another purpose or combination of purposes.