Checking that you and your partnering organisation have shared expectations is important for many aspects of managing a health justice partnership. Theory of change and program logic are useful tools from evaluation that can also support communication and planning. But the terms ‘theory of change’ and ‘program logic’ can be used in different ways by different people, which can create confusion. If you’re planning to design a program logic or theory of change for your health justice partnership, take a moment to check in with the people you’re working with to make sure you’re working towards the same thing. This includes people within your own organisation, in your partnering organisation, and any external evaluators or researchers.
This quick introduction provides examples of some of the diagrams that people might be thinking about when they say ‘theory of change’ or ‘program logic’, and why they are useful. It also includes links to material from Health Justice Australia that can provide a useful starting point when developing such diagrams.
We created this resource to go with a suite of video guides to support partnerships in monitoring and evaluation for their HJP, funded by the Victorian State Government Empowerment Fund and developed in close collaboration with The Data Conversation.
