Federal government’s $40 million for evaluation a ‘mea culpa’

“The Federal government’s announcement today of $10 million a year over four years to strengthen the evaluation of Indigenous programs is an acknowlegment that the current method of delivering programs is not working,” Centre for Independent Studies Indigenous Research Program Manager Sara Hudson said.

“The Australian Nation Audit office is tabling a review of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy in parliament today and the Minister of Indigenous Affairs annoucement of this funding for evaluation suggests that it will be a damning report.

“The implementation of a formal evidence and evaluation framework by the federal government comes on the back of a scathing report by the Productivity Commission in November last year.

”The Productivity Commission’s Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report was consistent with the findings of a Centre for Independent Studies research report Mapping the Indigenous Program and Funding Maze, which found only 8% (88) of 1,082 programs had been evaluated,” Ms Hudson said.

“While the government’s focus on evaluation is welcome, the money must go into improving the delivery and implementation of Indigenous programs and not merely used to feather the nests of evaluators.”

Sara Hudson is Manager of the Indigenous Research Program at The Centre for Independent Studies and author of the report Mapping the Indigenous Program and Funding Maze, published in August 2016.