Numerous assessment and measurement frameworks are available to gauge the effectiveness of health and prevention strategies, all contributing to Victoria's comprehensive evaluation of its collective efforts.
For instance, WHISE utilises its Social Impact Framework and assesses net community benefit ($) through the Australian Social Values Bank.
However, consolidating to a single agreed-upon evaluation framework would significantly enhance program assessment, as opposed to each entity using disparate frameworks. A crucial aspect of successful evaluation frameworks lies in the initiatives' ability to utilise them effectively by gathering data that aligns with shared indicators. We believe adopting a unified evaluation framework across all entities would lead to a more cohesive approach to evidence gathering and program evaluation.
Empowerment is a key principle in health promotion, intertwining individual control with collective action within social contexts, applicable to individuals, organisations, and communities (Lindacher, et al., 2018; Rappaport, 1987; Wallerstein, 1992).
When empowerment is applied in health promotion programs, they usually include participatory strategies and capacity building – such strategies can be observed in WHISE’s health promotion programs.
It is difficult to develop a ‘gold standard’ for the evaluation of empowerment and capacity building approaches. However, considering the popularity of applying empowerment in health promotion programs, there could be benefits to collectively developing an empowerment evaluation framework which defines shared indicators. We recognise, however, that context and culture influence the empowerment intervention and so tailored indicators need to be defined to capture the specific needs and priorities of the target population. Nonetheless, doing so would enable comparisons of programs and strengthen the quality and consistency of information that is used to measure and evaluate the health and wellbeing of Victorians.
A recent example of how the women’s health services are attempting to create an evaluation process in order to collectively evaluate progress, is the Women’s Health Services Indicator Framework (the Framework).
This includes a suite of progress measures to monitor the impact of the Victorian Women’s Health Services (WHS). The Framework will enable monitoring of what the Victorian Women’s Health Program (VWHP), and the Women’s Health Services Capacity Building Program (WHSCBP) achieves at state and service catchment level, aligned with population level outcomes. The Framework will form part of the monitoring and evaluation plan of the WHSs. The Framework also provides state and local agencies with the information to collect and analyse the data for annual reporting against the Framework.