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Foundations of Evaluation for Planetary Health: Highlights

Foundations of Evaluation for Planetary Health
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table of contents
  1. Abstract
  2. Acknowledgements
  3. About the Authors
    1. Astrid Brousselle
    2. Kai Mountfort
  4. Invitation
  5. Prologue: The Hummingbird Fable
  6. Introduction
    1. Earth Day Evaluation Declaration 2024
    2. Endnotes
  7. 1. Context Matters: Evaluation in the 21st Century
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Environmental and Social Depletion
    4. Reducing Risks
    5. Local Cultural Contexts
    6. Evaluation Takes Place in a Political Context
    7. Post-truth Influence as the New Propaganda
    8. Conclusion
    9. Endnotes
  8. 2. Evaluation for Planetary Health
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
    4. The Planetary Health Framework
    5. A Transformative Approach
    6. Conclusion
    7. Endnotes
  9. 3. The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool
    4. Conclusion
    5. Endnotes
  10. 4. Evaluation: Definitions, Approaches and Questions
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Definitions
    4. Evaluation Approaches
    5. When to Evaluate and for What Purpose?
    6. Evaluative Questions
    7. Conclusion
    8. Endnotes
  11. 5. Preparing for the Evaluation
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Evaluation Use and the Importance of Mapping the Context
    4. Drafting an Evaluation Plan
    5. Summary
    6. Conclusion
    7. Endnotes
  12. 6. Representing the Intervention
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. The Causal Model
    4. The Logic Model
    5. Use of Logic Models
    6. Different Visual Representations of the Intervention
    7. Conclusion
    8. Endnotes
  13. 7. Logic Analysis
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Foundations of Logic Analysis
    4. Types of Logic Analysis
    5. Steps for Conducting a Direct Logic Analysis
    6. Steps for Conducting a Reverse Logic Analysis
    7. Conclusion
    8. Endnotes
  14. 8. Effect Analysis and Related Approaches
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Defining Effects and Causal Relationship
    4. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research Designs
    5. Contribution Analysis
    6. Impact Evaluation
    7. Considering Planetary Health Dimensions when Evaluating Impacts
    8. Outcome Harvesting
    9. Conclusion
    10. Endnotes
  15. 9. Implementation Analysis
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. In the Literature
    4. Implementation Analysis Questions
    5. Evaluation Designs for Implementation Analysis
    6. Impacts on Planetary Health
    7. Conclusion
    8. Endnotes
  16. 10. Economic Evaluation
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Background
    4. Types of Economic Evaluations
    5. The Comparator
    6. Cost Calculation
    7. Time Horizon
    8. Uncertainty
    9. Decision Criteria
    10. Limitations of Existing Approaches
    11. A Proposal for Useful Economic Evaluations for Planetary Health
    12. Conclusion
    13. Endnotes
  17. 11. Needs Assessment
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Defining What is, What should be and For Whom
    4. Contextual Elements and Boundaries
    5. Ex-ante and Ex-post
    6. Other important Considerations
    7. Next Steps?
    8. A Political Exercise
    9. Summary
    10. Endnotes
  18. 12. Monitoring
    1. Highlights
    2. Introduction
    3. Focus
    4. Establishing a Monitoring System
    5. Reporting and Other Considerations
    6. Gaming and Other Behavioural Effects
    7. Conclusion
    8. Endnotes
  19. 13. An Example: Evaluating a Local Government Official Community Plan Using Planetary Health Lenses
    1. Introduction
    2. Characterizing the OCP Within the Context of the Planetary Health Framework
    3. Data Collection
    4. Findings
    5. Recommendations
    6. Conclusion
    7. Endnotes
  20. 14. Further Thoughts and Resources
    1. Endnotes
  21. Bibliography

Highlights

  • Purpose and flexibility of the Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool: The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool is designed to help assess the potential impacts of all kinds of interventions on planetary health. It is applied at various intervention stages, from conceptualization to post-implementation, and can be tailored to specific needs and contexts. The tool can be used to complement existing evaluation methodologies.
  • Holistic perspective: The tool ensures that all dimensions related to both natural and human systems are considered. It avoids selective assessments, ensuring a comprehensive approach to identifying planetary health impacts.
  • Support for identifying trade-offs: By rating and analyzing interventions across various planetary health dimensions, the tool helps identify trade-offs—highlighting where positive impacts in one area may cause harm in another and then helping to guide improvements or identify compensatory measures.
  • Facilitating democratic engagement: When used in group settings, the tool aids in gathering and contrasting diverse perspectives, fostering transparency and democratic engagement. It encourages collaborative reflection on the impacts of interventions.

Introduction

Introducing planetary health lenses in all evaluation projects involves identifying how the intervention interacts with the context. Interventions are both shaped by the context and shape it. On one hand, as we will experience in the coming years with more turbulent times due to climate change, the context is likely to change rapidly and impact the relevance of interventions. On the other hand, interventions also impact human and natural systems, and their impacts should be anticipated and assessed in all evaluation projects.

A rapid assessment is useful for quickly providing an overview of potential impacts on planetary health dimensions. This approach is different from an effect analysis, as it is not about causality. Furthermore, unlike effect analysis, which is a post-implementation activity, rapid assessments can be conducted at the design stage of the intervention as well as after its implementation. Below, we will describe the Rapid Assessment Tool for Planetary Health, how it can be tailored to your own evaluation context, and its contributions and uses. The full description of how to develop a Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool, compile results, and use them for engagement is presented elsewhere (Brousselle et al., 2024b).

The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment Tool

The objective of the Rapid Assessment Tool for Planetary Health is to provide an easy-to-use tool for people, regardless of their level of expertise, to consider major determinants of planetary health from a holistic perspective. The Rapid Assessment Tool for Planetary Health supports the rapid assessment of all types of interventions across all sectors. It can help people consider the planetary health impacts of interventions, covering both natural and human systems. It helps identify if and how the intervention contributes positively to some dimensions while deteriorating others. It supports the identification of trade-offs, as some interventions bring very desirable impacts on certain dimensions while harming others. It can also be used as an engagement tool for discussing intervention impacts within groups. Responses from different groups of participants can be compiled and contrasted (for details see Brousselle et al. 2024).

Such a tool can also be used at different stages of an evaluation, such as supporting the development of the logic model with a planetary health perspective, in logic analysis to document the theory of intervention, in contribution analysis, or in needs assessments. Additionally, the tool could easily be adapted and integrated into health and environmental impact assessments (HIA and EIA) or accountability exercises led by governments (Brousselle et al., 2024b).

Health and environmental impact assessments have been established to evaluate the impacts of major industrial projects. Environmental impact assessments began to be implemented as regulatory processes by governments as early as the late 1950s (Turnbull, 1992).

In the 1990s, we saw the emergence of a new approach, HIA, aimed at assessing impacts on health and equity of projects in the non-healthcare sectors, and suggesting mitigation measures for reducing harm and increasing positive impacts on human beings (Birley, 2011; Collins & Koplan, 2009; Wright et al., 2005). (as cited in Brousselle et al., 2024b, p. 272)

These processes are generally lengthy and do not always adopt a life-cycle perspective, often overlooking important elements that affect the environment and population health. Using the Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool in these exercises could support the implementation of a more comprehensive and deliberative approach, while offering insights in a more timely manner (Brousselle et al., 2024b).

The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool is a one-page document that can be also converted in an online survey (see Figure 3.1). Other versions have also been developed, one with a 2-step approach, rating the likelihood and the magnitude of the occurrence of impacts, following the method described in Rapid Impact Evaluation (Rowe, 2019a); another one using a numerical scale.

The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool can provide guidance to individual users or can be used to survey the positions of different groups. Group survey results can be contrasted according to demographics or other group characteristics and presented to different audiences for engaging in group discussions.

The Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool has been developed in collaboration with the founders of Climate Caucus, a network of elected leaders in local governments and allies willing to lead transformation in their communities within planetary boundaries (https://www.climatecaucus.ca). The tool can be used as is or it can also be tailored to meet your own needs and evaluation context. The principles according to which the Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool should be developed and applied are presented in Exhibit 1.

In the Planetary Health Rapid Impact Assessment tool, planetary health determinants are identified in capital letters. To maintain a holistic perspective and avoid the "pick and choose" strategy often observed with the United Nations’ SDGs, all dimensions related to natural and human systems (pollution, land and waters, biodiversity, health, equity, prosperity) must be included. Power and Governance are not determinants of planetary health but rather important dimensions to consider for the effective implementation of your intervention. For this reason, they were not initially integrated into the tool. Furthermore, additional subdimensions can be incorporated into the tool as needed. Notably, in Figure 3.1, the dimensions of Reconciliation and UNDRIP, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, typically considered subdimensions of governance and pollution, are presented as distinct dimensions. This modification was made at the request of some elected local government officials in British Columbia to reflect their accountability commitments. The notion of power was also integrated as a dimension after testing the tool with Indigenous experts. Specific language has been added under each capitalized word to help non-experts understand what each dimension encompasses. The language under each dimension can be tailored to align with the specific nature of interventions and their implementation contexts.

Figure 3.1 Planetary Health Rapid Assessment Tool for Local Governments in Canada

On the left side, nine dimensions covering natural and human systems are listed: health, equity, reconciliation and UNDRIP, power, prosperity, greenhouse gas emissions (carbon pollution), biodiversity, land and water, and pollution. Below each dimension, a brief description is provided. To the right of each dimension, a scale allows for rating the intervention.

Source: Brousselle, A., Curren, M., Dunbar, B., McDavid, J., Logtenberg, R., & Ney, T. (2024b). Planetary Health: Creating Rapid Impact Assessment Tools. Evaluation, 30(2), 279. https://doi.org/10.1177/13563890241227433 (This work was originally published online under the license CC BY-NC-SA: Brousselle, A., Curren M. (2023) Policy Makers For Planetary Health).

To use the tool, the user or participant is asked to think about the intervention and rate it according to each dimension. Ratings can be converted into indices based on the technique used for visual analog scales in economic evaluation (Drummond et al., 2005). The distance from the start of the scale is measured and converted into a number. If used by individuals, the rating on the scale can be converted into indices and graphs compiling impacts (see Figure 3.2 for an example). If used to survey groups’ perceptions, a scorecard can be created (see Figure 3.3).

Figure 3.2 Example of Synthetic Indices

This bar diagram illustrates the impacts of the intervention on natural and human systems, as well as on planetary health, showing varying levels of achievement.

Source: Brousselle, A., Curren, M., Dunbar, B., McDavid, J., Logtenberg, R., & Ney, T. (2024b). Planetary Health: Creating Rapid Impact Assessment Tools. Evaluation, 30(2), 281. https://doi.org/10.1177/13563890241227433

Figure 3.3 Impacts on Planetary Health Dimensions of a 2023 Conference

Pie charts illustrating how respondents assessed each dimension of the Planetary Health Rapid Assessment Tool. Each pie shows the proportion of responses categorized as strong positive impact, small positive impact, small undesirable impact, and strong undesirable impact.

Source: Brousselle, A., Curren, M., Dunbar, B., McDavid, J., Logtenberg, R., & Ney, T. (2024b). Planetary Health: Creating Rapid Impact Assessment Tools. Evaluation, 30(2), 283. https://doi.org/10.1177/13563890241227433

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This book is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This means that you are free to share and build upon the material, so long as you give appropriate credit and indicate if changes are made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Under this license, anyone who redistributes or modifies this book, in whole or in part, can do so for free providing they properly attribute the book as follows: Brousselle, A. (2026). Foundations of Evaluation for Planetary Health. Victoria, B.C. University of Victoria Libraries. Doi: https://doi.org/10.18357/9781550587364
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