A Manager’s Guide to Evaluating Citizen Participation

This new report by Tina Nabatchi, published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government, provides a practical assessment guide for government program managers who want to know if citizen engagement efforts are making a difference. Tips, questions, worksheets and indicators are provided for evaluating the implementation and management processes of a citizen participation program and for evaluating the impact such as a program’s outcomes and results.

Nabatchi says, “The goal of this report is not only to increase public managers’ understanding of and ability to evaluate citizen participation, but also to produce results that, in the long term, will help managers determine whether, where, when, why, and how to engage in direct citizen participation efforts.”

There’s lots of good stuff in this report. In particular, I recommend checking out the following sections:

• Table comparing assumptions and realities about citizen participation in government (page 8 )
• List of benefits of evaluating public participation (page 14)
• Overview of how to do program evaluation (pages 17-20)

Download the report from the Center’s website.

This report follows on another recent IBM Center report by Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Joe Goldman, and David Stern, Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era: A Review of Federal Agency Plans, which highlights best practices and plans in major U.S. federal agencies.

Tina Nabatchi, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs and Faculty Research Associate, PARCC, at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University.