For nearly twenty years Canadian government agencies including the Federal Treasury Board, international organizations, NGOs, foreign governments and others have worked to enhance the ability to improve the performance and results produced by projects, programs, policies and/or other planned initiatives.
In its simples form, the focus of that effort has been on measuring ..... the effectiveness and efficiency of the use and application of inputs ----> to generate activities ------ > that produce outputs that yield ---> desired RESULTS AND IMPACTS. e.g. ingredients and skills for making a pie ----> lead to making of pie crust, preperation of fruit filling and baking of pie and
invitation of local newspaper food critic ---> that produces the dessert course of a multi-course dinner consumed by the food critic ----> that results in rave reviews in local newspaper that leads to an increase in business.
You can google RBM Treasury Board, Google Result Based Management or take a look at a good power point presentation at http://www.ccrda.org/files/54/files/CCRDA_RBM_Presentation.pdf It provides a bit of background to the genesis and present use of RBM if you are interested.
All this to let you in on a little secret...... From what I can see, neither ACOA or Economic Development are terribly interested in measuring results.... rather the process seems designed to be superficial, without any evidence of causal links between monies invested, activities initiated, outputs produced or impacts and results measuring social and/or economic development. Following is the one page document entitled "South West Shore Development Authority Summary of mid Year Review".
I invite you dear reader to take a look at SWSDA's web page and the 2009-2010 Plan laid out there at:
http://www.swsda.com/userfiles/ABusiness%20Plan%202009-2010%20for%20website(3).pdf
1. Problems you'll encounter include that Annex C identifed in the table of contents dealing with the evaluation of the program for 2008-2009 is not included in the SWSDA web page.... soooo no one knows what success they've claimed for what.
2. Their logic framework appears to be a toothless bastardized version of logic frameworks used in all these models by other organizations. That is because SWSDA and ACOA/Economic Development appear to be basing the conclusions they draw on what they call "measures of success" like lower unemployment.... without having to qualify or quantify what employment level changes are directly attributable to the investments/expenditures/action of SWSDA or even identifying what unemployment levels are presently..... what is missing is what folks call the causal link ..... determined by the measurement of OBJECTIVELY VERIFIABLE INDICATORS (OVIs).... for each impact, result, output, activity, or input identified.
UNFORTUNATELY THERE ISN'T AN OVI IN SIGHT IN EITHER SWSDA OR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT'S MODELS......OR REPORTS.
9 comments:
The obligatory one liner that refers to Shelburne Co. says it all. Needless to say the RBM standards were not adhered to and ERD and ACOA are covering their hindquarters in this farce - but then what did we really expect from them? We should all have a framed copy of this to remind us it was ERD and ACOA who failed us so miserably in their oversight and lack of checks and balances on this Y'mouth Society for the past 10 years. Thanks for the info Ed, you're working overtime today!
We think it's time the feds did an RBM of one of their own - namely ACOA. The TB website tells us, "RBM is a life cycle approach...to improve decision making, transparency and accountability." What a joke this is - SWSDA hides behind closed doors and is accountable to nobody. Shame on ERD for failing the people of this county for so long, and shame on ACOA for providing the funding knowing full well what has been going on. These nitwits have forgotten they are there to serve the people not their cronies!
Thanks Ed for the info, you're working overtime today - hope your BP is lower than mine!
Ha - we're lost for words. Do you mean to tell us that the ERD/ACOA team were actually paid to come up with this sorry excuse for a Performance Review. Frank must have wined and dined them well at The Grand while serving up his SWSDA spin. They sure as heck didn't spend much time measuring his success in the development department. He's a real charmer isn't he.
RBMR -ARE THE EXPECTED OBJECTIVES SET AND THEN THE RESULTS MEASURED OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND?
rESULTS ARE GREAT AS LONG AS THEY ARE WHAT WAS SET IN THE BEGINING.
Well Ed, I like the pie analogy, with the local newspapers around here, in South-West Nova, it would be difficult to get them to taste your pie, let alone judge it fairly, unless it was baked in the right kitchen. This area needs a real news outlet. There are not many places left, in the thinking world, where this type of nonsense could go on and be hidden by the press, from their readers. These papers are full of useless feel-good b#llsh$t, not worth buying, not even enough paper to light a decent fire.
I had to stop to comment when I read this......"SWSDA is working AT 100% capacity but "SUCCESSION" planning needs to be addressed." !!!!!!! I have to stop reading this for a while it is too amusing.
Having just read some of the SWSDA website info I am questioning why YAIC is represented, yet Sheburne and Barrington Industrial Commissions aren't.
How are YAIC salary expenses and operations kept separate from SWSDA records, or are they? Is the SWSDA CEO still employed by YAIC? Is SWSDA reimbursed for YAIC staff who use SWSDA office space, computers, electricity, phones, etc.?
I can see why SWSDA received this rating; the CEO and Richard Hurlburt served Yarmouth and area well with PC backing.
That was detrimental to Shelburne Co. which in effect had an absentee RDA.
Without any major projects in Shelburne Co. there would be little to review or assess.
I can't see this being allowed to continue in any other part of N.S., so why are the people of Shelburne Co. silent? It's strange to say the least - is there something in the water in this neck of the woods?
The apathy in this area is so apparent we jokingly say it must be the inbreeding, but unless the people of the area demand more from their municipal, provincial and federal leaders, they will never see any improvement. It is still the squeaky wheels that get the grease, and to sit back and complain to the wrong people doesn't get the job done. Turn off the boob tubes and get active within your community; you'll feel a lot better for it! See you at The Exhibition which wouldn't be possible without the numerous volunteers devoting their time and labour for its success.Thanks folks!
REPEAT:" unless the people of the area demand more from their municipal, provincial and federal leaders, they will never see any improvement". And herein lies the roots of the problem. We elect people to look after our concerns.At present the "in". are not doing it.Write or call your local pol. Attempt to ge a letter in the paper.Merely reading the information provided by Ed and bitching will not do it.
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