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The purpose of this document is to present a review of the available evaluation findings and performance data of the Adaptation Theme programs, under the umbrella of the Clean Air Agenda (CAA). The Adaptation Theme is one of eight themes under the CAA architecture1 and consists of seven programs.
Individual evaluations of the programs within the Adaptation Theme were conducted, or are in the process of being conducted, by their respective responsible departments and agency. Each of the individual program-level evaluations sought to address program-specific issues of relevance and performance, in addition to using a core set of thematic evaluation questions in order to facilitate the review of findings at the thematic level.
This document presents a review of the current findings of the individual evaluations and performance data for the seven programs within the Adaptation Theme. The findings of this review will also be integrated into the overall Clean Air Agenda horizontal evaluation in the fall of 2010. Environment Canada (EC) was responsible for the completion of this review, in consultation with the following partners: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Health Canada (HC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
It is still early in the implementation of the programs within the Adaptation Theme, and many of the individual program evaluation reports were only at the draft stage at the time of this Adaptation Theme evaluation review. A need was identified, however, to provide the most up-to-date evaluation findings available to the senior management involved in developing a renewed approach to the Theme. It was determined that the preferred approach would be to develop this evaluation review based on the program evaluation findings or performance data available at the time (Spring 2010).
It was recognized during the Adaptation Theme Evaluation Review planning phase in winter 2009 that the programs would only be in early implementation at the time of the evaluation review and an assessment of the Theme’s collective performance would be challenging, given that the majority of program evaluations would likely be either incomplete or would provide only preliminary findings.2 Further, it was evident that the programs are varied in scope and design and would require sufficient program-level evaluation evidence to support program management decision-making. This would not have been feasible had the evaluation evidence been exclusively thematic. As a result, the focus of evaluation activity for the Adaptation Theme was on the evaluation of individual programs. While providing a high-level review of program status and early indications of performance where available to assist horizontal decision-making, this evaluation review is supplemental to the individual program evaluations and does not represent the level of detail that is available in those reports.
This document presents the findings and recommendations of the Adaptation Theme Evaluation Review and is organized in the following way:
1 The CAA architecture includes 44 programs and nine federal departments and agencies.
2 There were only four completed evaluations at the time of the Adaptation Theme Evaluation Review, of which only two had been approved by their respective Departmental Evaluation Committees. Evaluation Review findings also were derived from the preliminary findings of two other ongoing program evaluations and a stakeholder survey used for performance measurement purposes. More details on the status of the individual evaluations are available in Table 2 of this report.