Table 2 Potential and limitations of evaluation methods
From: The use of evaluation methods for the overall assessment of health policy: potential and limitations
Criteria | Evaluation method | Potential | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
Time | Ex ante | Carried out at an early stage can have a positive impact on the overall policy implementation process | Lack of access to valid evidence from scientific research It is necessary to refer to other evidence whenever the policy objectives change |
Mid-term evaluation | Can lead to a number of changes in the program, project or policy, especially in the process of their implementation | There is a potential risk of making premature decisions about changes in the ongoing policy | |
Ex-post | Provides evidence for decision making process | Difficulty to establish cause-and-effect relationships due to complexity of health policy The complexity of the institutional environment may impede the identification of valuable data sources for the evaluation process | |
Purpose | Formative | Allows for the necessary changes to be made to the programs to improve their efficiency | It’s value is largely dependent on the previously carried out summative evaluations for policies of a similar nature, scope and area of activity |
Summative | Linking activities with achievements It allows to infer about the effectiveness of implemented solutions | Does not provide grounds for drawing conclusions about what has failed in the implemented activities or what has proved helpful | |
Scope | Meta-evaluation | A basic set of evaluation criteria is easy to determine based on generally available standards of national or international evaluation societies Allows for elimination of evidence from substandard evaluations | Not identified |
Cluster evaluation | A scheme for evaluation is created to capture a broader picture of the issue | Solution created for project evaluation, i.e. easily identifiable projects that remain limited in time and have clearly defined objectives |