Equinet Evaluation Lab – Final booklet

The Equinet Evaluation Lab aimed to provide a platform for expert staff members of equality bodies interested in measuring the impact of their work. Today, Equinet is publishing the final outcomes of the project in order to stimulate discussions on the evaluation work of equality bodies within and outside its membership.

The paper provides recommendations on what equality bodies could do in terms of measuring the impact of their work by developing and using effective planning processes, indicators and systems of evaluation.

The objectives of the project were the following:

• Discuss the findings and proposals of the 2013 paper.
• Equip equality bodies with better knowledge and tools to evaluate their work.
• Pave the way for further developing the evaluation work being done by equality bodies.

Evaluation Lab Booklet

The booklet aims to gather and summarise the findings and resources produced during the project and to share the knowledge generated among all Equinet members. It focuses on three particular aspects:

• The Planning Cycle
• Learning from the Evaluation Lab
• Moving Forward

Common indicators for equality bodies

The 2013 Equinet publication on ‘Processes and Indicators for Measuring Impact of Equality Bodies’ offers a menu of thirty-seven possible indicators that equality bodies could use.

This menu was used as a basis by the Evaluation Lab members, who agreed on 7 indicators every equality bodies could use, no matter what their size, mandate, powers and resources are.

They are all impact indicators and focus on equality bodies stimulating institutional change and societal change.

Societal Change:

• Knowledge of the equality body among the general public.
• Knowledge of and commitment to the equal treatment legislation among employers, service providers, trade unions and consumer bodies.
• The level to which the equality body voice is deemed to be an authoritative voice.
• Reduction in under-reporting level, the percentage of those who perceive that they have been discriminated against and do not take any action in response.
• Number of strategic interventions to champion equality at moments of tension in society.
  
  

Institutional Change:

• The number (in relation to the target set) of policy recommendations made by the equality body and the share of policy recommendations adopted by policy makers, including changes made in equal treatment legislation.
• The number (in relation to the target set) of organisations, in the public and private sectors, that have developed employment and/or service provision related equality policies, procedures and practices as a result of their engagement with the equality body.
  
  

The common indicators are available in the Evaluation Lab Booklet.

Evaluation Lab Common Indicators