a conceptual framework for environmental indicator selection is proposed that puts the indicator set at the heart of the selection process and not the individual indicators. To achieve this objective, the framework applies the concept of the causal network that focuses on the inter-relation of indicators. The concept of causal networks can facilitate the identification of the most relevant indicators for a specific domain, problem and location, leading to an indicator set that is at once transparent, effcient and powerful in its ability to assess the state of the environment.
- Evaluation rubrics This BetterEvaluation page illustrates how rubrics work using a rating scale to assess group process capacity in dryland community groups - to track their progress and to focus planning for the next stage of the project. In this way a rubric clearly sets out criteria and standards for assessing different levels of project and/or individual (or group or organizational) performance. Rubrics have often been used in education for grading student work, and in recent years have been applied more widely in evaluation to make transparent the process of synthesising evidence into an overall evaluative judgement.
- Evaluation rubrics: how to ensure transparent and clear assessment that respects diverse lines of evidence In this 2013 article Judy Oakden presents education sector evaluation to illustrate the use of a logic model (to identify boundaries) and rubrics (to make evaluative judgements). The article shows how rubrics offer project stakeholders a process for making explicit the judgements in an evaluation and are used to judge the quality, the value, or the importance of the service provided. Rubrics are made up of: i) evaluative criteria: the aspects of performance the evaluation focusses on; and ii) merit determination: the definitions of what performance looks like at each level.
- Incorporating local sustainability indicators into structures of local governance: a review of the literature Too often studies about sustainability indicators focus either on the science that goes into indicator development seeking to make them rational and relevant or on the soft impacts such as social capital, community empowerment or capacity building that are outcomes of their use. When attention is turned to what effect they have on policy, it is often difficult to discern any link between their use and policy change. This 2009 paper by Nancy Holman seeks to address this problem by consolidating current thinking on indicators and asking the question: How far have notions of governance been incorporated into current research into indicators? The answer to this question has implications for the continuing utility of indicators as policy tools, not only in so far as they are able to aid the evaluation of policy, but also, and arguably more importantly, in how they are able to facilitate relationships between actors and act a catalyst around which various contested meanings of sustainability can be evaluated.
- Monitoring and evaluation in conservation a review of trends and approaches This paper from Caroline Stem, Richard Margoluis, Nick Salafsky and Marcia Brown (2005) notes the growing recognition among conservation practitioners and scholars that good project management is integrally linked to well-designed monitoring and evaluation systems. They also observe that in practice the results are mixed, with practitioners failing to learn from each other. This paper reviews monitoring and evaluation approaches in conservation and other fields including international development, public health, family planning, education, social services, and business. The results are presented here for the field of conservation. They suggest that the conservation community continue support of collaborative initiatives to improve monitoring and evaluation, establish clear definitions of commonly used terms, clarify monitoring and evaluation system components, apply available approaches appropriately, and include qualitative and social variables in monitoring efforts.