An Evaluation of the Sectoral Involvement in Departmental Policy Development (SIDPD):
Final Report
An evaluation of the Sectoral Involvement in Departmental Policy Development was undertaken
jointly by the Government of Canada and the voluntary sector. The two objectives of the
SIDPD program, which was a major element of the joint voluntary sector-federal government
Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI) were to a) enhance policy development in federal departments
by strengthening opportunities for input by voluntary sector organizations; and b) strengthen
policy capacity in the voluntary sector to contribute to departmental policy development.
The evaluation report, An Evaluation of the Sectoral
Involvement in Departmental Policy Development (SIDPD): Final Report, documented
the status of SIDPD projects, and identified the challenges and lessons learned from the
overall process as well as the extent to which Round 1 projects met the two major SIDPD
objectives. The findings of the evaluation are of an interim nature, as many SIDPD Round
2 projects are still ongoing or had yet to produce a final report at the time the evaluation
was carried out. An evaluation of the impact of SIDPD is planned as part of the VSI summative
evaluation, scheduled for completion in 2006-07.
This evaluation focused on five key questions concerning the SIDPD Program’s relevance,
its management, the achievement of its objectives, its impact on the federal-voluntary
sector relationship and the main challenges it faced.
Despite some weaknesses in design, delivery and coordination, the findings indicate that
the SIDPD has improved the policy development capacity of the voluntary sector, as well
as the capacity of federal departments to engage voluntary sector organizations in policy
development.
