We are evaluating the 2004-2009 phase of Australia’s National Drug Strategy (NDS) and will complete the project in the first half of 2009.

The task of monitoring and evaluating the NDS is challenging because such national human service initiatives usually involve large-scale, complex, multi-intervention and multi-sectoral programs of effort that take place in changing contexts. Standard program evaluation methods are inadequate for this type of policy and strategy evaluation. Key challenges facing evaluators and the bodies commissioning such evaluations include agreement on the evaluation research questions, setting boundaries for the evaluation (particularly developing a shared understanding of the scope of the NDS and its constituent programs for the purpose of the evaluation), understanding who are the key stakeholders, identifying outcomes, demonstrating attribution, responding to changing contexts in the life of the research, and ensuring that the evaluation is completed within the agreed timeframe and budget.

We describe and discuss how our team’s work in evaluating the current phase meets these challenges. We focus on the issues of complexly determined outcomes and attribution – challenges that have eluded some of the evaluations of the four previous phases of the NDS. We are using mixed methods research techniques: an important component is applying program logic together with contribution analysis to demonstrate attribution of effect. We are also applying a utilisation evaluation perspective, as our goal is to make it as likely as possible that the evaluation will help improve the AOD sector’s capacity and performance to achieve its harm minimisation goals in the next phase of Australia’s National Drug Strategy.