As well as informing project decisions, the results from your engagement will inform the rest of your engagement program and your future engagement. Ideally, you should conduct an evaluation of your engagement activities and your overall program using criteria established early on in your planning. They should take into account of your engagement objectives – did you achieve what you set out to achieve, why or why not? – but also whether your engagement was consistent with general principles of good engagement:
- clear scope and objectives
- inclusiveness (open to everyone, diversity of people and perspectives, people are supported to participate)
- appropriate question/s, timing and method/s
- deliberative and promotes deliberation (people are supported to consider information, share views and learn, they reason together and come to collective judgments)
- transparent and accountable (in relation to how the process is managed but also the outcomes)
- is connected to decision-making