Physical activity policy implementation: Measures, methods and means of evaluation to advance the field

Purpose: This workshop aims to share the learnings from the Policy Evaluation Network (PEN; https://www.jpi-pen.eu/), a four million, seven country, 28-Research Centre project in Europe. It will provide attendees with knowledge, skills and experience of how to use PEN’s tools and measures to conduct an evaluation of national physical activity policy implementation. Public policies are an increasingly important upstream component of physical activity (PA) promotion. They have the capacity to build enabling contexts for PA, thus influencing whole populations. However, the systematic evaluation of public policies in PA is poorly understood. The PEN project developed a standardized assessment tool, a capacity building methodology and an eight-step process, namely the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index (or PA-EPI). This process provides guidance on how countries can monitor their PA policy implementation status, undertake a comparison to international best practice, and learn how to identify implementation gaps and prioritise feasible recommendations for improvement. Learning Objectives By the end of this workshop, attendees will have: 1. Enhanced their knowledge on recent developments in PA policy globally. 2. Gained a greater understanding of a range of PA policy evaluation and monitoring tools and their usefulness. 3. Experienced first-hand the PA-EPI tool designed to assess the extent of implementation of national government policies and actions to promote PA. 4. Reflect on workshop learnings to inform and stimulate future research and practice in this field. Target Audience: This workshop will be of benefit to both novice and experienced researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Organization and Method of Presentation: This workshop will involve a mix of presentations, small group discussion, data analysis and co-creation. Attendees will gain practical experience of using the PA-EPI to evaluate the implementation of PA policy in a hypothetical country. This will ensure full understanding of the process, its potential and relevance to your situation.