Building Evaluation Capacity in Intersectoral Partnerships for Healthy Lifestyles

The organization Montréal-Métropole en santé (MMS) brings together over 300 stakeholders dedicated to promoting active living and sustainable eating practices on the island of Montreal. However, assessing the outcomes of their joint actions is challenging due to the complexity of this intersectoral partnership. To address this difficulty, this project aimed to design, implement, and evaluate an evaluation capacity building program within MMS. A development committee, composed of both researchers and MMS members, was formed to assess the current evaluation capacities within MMS and guide the implementation of activities aimed at enhancing evaluation knowledge and skills within the organization.
The committee first examined MMS’s evaluation capacities by adapting the following instrument to the MMS context: Grille d’analyse des capacités en évaluation des organismes communautaires québécois (Buetti, Bourgeois & Savard, 2019). Subsequently, this adapted instrument enabled the committee to identify strengths and weaknesses in evaluation practices within MMS that should be prioritized for fostering a stronger evaluation culture within the organization. The three priorities agreed for strengthening correspond to the following components of the instrument: (1) organizational resources; (2) planning and evaluation activities; (3) organizational decision-making. Additionally, through this identification, the committee designed and guided three workshops dedicated to building evaluation skills related to each of the three defined priorities. The workshops specifically focused on: (1) indicator selection and tool development; (2) preparation for analysis; (3) analysis of new data.
Ultimately, this project contributed to a better understanding of the collective impact of MMS networks, facilitating collaboration between MMS stakeholders to effectively promote healthy lifestyles in the Montreal metropolis. Funding for this project was provided by the Mitacs program and the partner organization, MMS.