Evaluation and accountability
/Evaluation and accountability
Review and learn internally
Remember that your first experience with digital participation will inevitably be opportunities for learning. You may discover that the platform you selected doesn't do a sufficient job supporting your needs. Or you may find the platform to be too complicated to use, and end up relying on far simpler digital solutions to accomplish your goals.
The goal of pilot programs is to learn before committing to a course of action. In many institutions, there will be strong incentives to demonstrate that everything went well, even when it didn't. Resist this pressure and work to understand where you or your team can make improvements. If your institution doesn't have a formal internal evaluation process, consider implementing pre-mortems and post-mortems on your participation process.
Be accountable to your publics
It's also vital to share with your community the mid-term results of their engagement. Communicating these results will benefit future programs that invite engagement with your institution.
This screenshot from the DemosX platform shows the results from a citizen discussion on whether fertility shots should be provided at community health centers.
In Seoul, successful participant proposals on the DemosX digital platform are developed into policy implementation plans. Each plan is monitored quarterly, with the results posted on an implementation page that participants can monitor. The page includes a detailed report on progress and outcome data showing the changes brought about by the policy.
Tap into these evaluation resources
Two evaluation resources you should consider reviewing are:
More broadly, you may benefit from the impact-assessment work led by:
The World Bank's Digital Engagement Evaluation Team (DEET).
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