Deliberation&Evaluation

INTEGRAAL

Generic Description of the Step

Step ONE.

What’s Our Problem?

Identification by the stakeholder community of “our common problem”.  This step may engage stakeholder consultation and deliberation; and it delivers the context, the scale, and the dynamics of the formal deliberation process to come.

Step TWO

Structure the Evaluation Tasks

Organise “our common problem” in terms of the categories of actors concerned, the objects or options being assessed, and the value criteria.  This means developing typologies for (1) the spectrum of stakeholders; (2) the projects, policies, strategy options, and scenarios to be appraised; and (3) the principles of performance, quality and acceptability that the stakeholders hold.

Step THREE

Prepare Knowledge Resources

Identify and mobilise tools for system representation (e.g., maps, data sets, models of processes and systems) that can help to ground the deliberations in a robust knowledge base and that will assist in preparing catalogues of indicators representing the stakeholders’ reference points when working to evaluate situations and scenarios.

Step FOUR

Exercises of Deliberative Evaluation

Mobilise actors for tasks of deliberation.  This step depends on the frameworks and information developed in Steps 1-3 above.   Using functionalities of the KerDST Deliberation Matrix on-line, it produces outcomes in the formal sense of multi-actor multi-criteria evaluations.  Simultaneously it provides insights and learning opportunities to participants.

Step FIVE

Restitution 
of Results

Communication of Results & Recommendations.  This includes, but is not limited to, the reporting of outcomes of an evaluation exercise.  It also includes all tasks “along the way” of information sharing relating to the design and preparations of deliberations, documentation of discussions and intermediate results.

Step SIX

Start all 
over Again

Reflection on the outcomes obtained and, in an iterative sense, a return to Step ONE of the process, in order to review the entire evaluation sequence or, as seems fit, to repeat the exercise or formulate new specific evaluation problems.