aes22 International Evaluation Conference

Katina D’Onise, Executive Director, Prevention and Population Health Directorate, Wellbeing SA

In public health we are constantly striving to make the changes in society that will lead to sustainable, positive, meaningful changes in people’s lives. This is a highly complex and challenging task as we attempt to reform legislation, policy, to educate and communicate effectively and engage meaningfully with a myriad of different communities that make up our society. Key to our effectiveness is being data driven and understanding how effective we have been. Evaluation plays a key role in all components of the work of public health from structuring the thinking on what we hope to achieve and how, how we are faring against what we planned, thinking about needing to redirect the work and finally evaluating our effectiveness with a view to making decisions going forward. To increase our effectiveness, can we look to other fields of practice which (intentionally or otherwise) use evaluative thinking as a fundamental tenet to how they work? Who also work in complex environments and seek to make sustainable change? These matters will be discussed, drawing on the context and learning from responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia.