Evaluation of the Community Ecosystem Partnerships Program: chapter 5


5.0 Conclusions

This section presents the overall conclusions of the evaluation.

Relevance

Overall, the activities undertaken as part of the CEP program continue to be relevant, as there is an ongoing need to address environmental issues, such as water quality and availability, and to collect scientific data and research, using an ecosystem-based approach. The CE program is clearly aligned with government and departmental priorities related to ecosystem health improvements and ensuring water quality and availability. The CEP program is also consistent with federal roles and responsibilities related to the Department of Environment Act and Canada Water Act.

Effectiveness

Although evidence shows that expected outcomes are being achieved to some extent in the West and North and Atlantic and Quebec regions, several issues remain. Although evidence points to increased stakeholder capacity and knowledge, issues remain related to increasing the participation of governments and stakeholders, due mainly to the closed nature of the funding process and decreasing EC participation with community organizations in the Atlantic and Quebec Region, while in the West and North Region, the program has had difficulty expanding participation beyond a select number of regional organizations. Furthermore, little evidence was found of the coordination of activities taking place within the department related to community ecosystem partnerships in the West and North and Atlantic and Quebec regions. The evaluation also found that no formal performance measurement strategy presently exists for the CEP program, and noted some significant weaknesses related to performance measurement, including a lack of performance targets and issues related to alignment of indicators with expected outcomes in the case of AEI, as well as a lack of formal mechanisms for performance data collection and reporting for the Okanagan-Similkameen PE.

Efficiency and Economy

Overall, the evaluation found that the CEP program was delivering activities and outputs at a low cost. The evaluation found that, although overall governance mechanisms were clear and effective, especially in the case of AEI, significant issues were identified for the Okanagan-Similkameen PE, related to clear and common understanding of program objectives and the role of the program in addressing environmental issues in the region, The CEP program has introduced significant organizational efficiency improvements to realize cost-savings in response to Budget 2012 commitments and, in the case of AEI, further changes are being made to the program delivery model, such as opening up the funding process to other organizations. With respect to the Okanagan-Similkameen PE, no documented evidence was found as to how these changes will impact program activities going forward.

Page details

Date modified: