STEERING COMMITTEES – ARE THEY WORTH THE HASSLE?
Defence will be leading a CEF session in October titled Steering Committees - are they worth the hassle? The subject will explore the use of Steering Committees from a number of agencies perspectives with Defence taking the lead.
The main purpose of this note is to invite agencies that may wish to share their experiences of Steering Committees to present at the forum (would probably be about a 15 minute presentation).
The session will explore the pros and cons of utilising Steering Committees in the evaluation process, including their possible roles and authority, and relationship with the senior executive and with the evaluation team. It is envisaged that this will include reference to case studies where Steering Committees have worked very well, and others where they have been an administrative overhead with very little return on investment.
By way of background, Steering Committees are established for all Defence portfolio evaluations, but they do not always work as well as hoped. In order to enhance the utility of some Steering Committees, Defence has used a number of different approaches, including the use of independent chairs with subject matter expertise, with varying degrees of success. The session will explore the possible success factors in getting Steering Committees to work for you.
As a general rule Steering Committees in Defence:
a. act as an advisory group to the evaluation manager;
b. endorse terms of reference including objectives;
c. endorse evaluation methodologies;
d. provide technical advice to the evaluation team;
e. suggest additional avenues for information gathering;
f. facilitate access to documents and personnel; and
g. provide input to the evaluation report.
Of particular interest from agencies interested in participating would be those which have had experience of inter-departmental Steering Committees overseeing evaluations of whole of government shared outcomes.
If you are interested in sharing your experiences of Steering Committees with the Canberra Evaluation Forum please contact David Roberts, Assistant Director Portfolio Evaluation and Review in Defence, (and member of the CEF Facilitation Group) on (02) 6266 4155.