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In this topic, we explore different reasons why you might evaluate. We look at why evaluation is valuable, particularly for Indigenous not-for-profit organisations. You will also find examples of why other Indigenous groups undertake M&E work.
While reading this topic, think about the following questions and how they relate to your organisation, community or nation:
Groups undertake monitoring and evaluation to understand their work and make informed decisions in ways that reflect their community’s values and priorities. At a broad level, evaluation helps groups find out what’s working or not working, what changes might be needed and how their work is making a difference for their people, community and Country. Monitoring and evaluation work might focus on a specific program, service or activity, or look more holistically at the impact of the group as a whole.
Evaluation is an important part of strong Indigenous governance. It supports leaders in exercising their responsibilities, making informed choices and remaining accountable to their communities.
Understanding the reasons for evaluation helps your group decide:
The purpose and focus of evaluation will differ depending on your group, its context, sector and the communities it serves. For example, government agencies, peak bodies and community-run programs will all have different reasons for evaluating.
For many Indigenous groups, evaluation is also about strengthening self-determination, supporting Indigenous governance in practice, ensuring accountability to community and reflecting local values and ways of working. It can provide a structured way for communities to guide decisions uphold cultural authority and adapt initiatives over time.
Below, we outline some key ways evaluation is used and provide examples of why other Indigenous groups undertake this work:
Evaluation can provide evidence that funding, resources, programs or services are being used effectively. This is important for funders, community members and other stakeholders.
NT Parks
The Guidebook for Supporting Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of Jointly Managed Parks in the Northern Territory outlines the main reasons identified by the World Commission on Protected Areas for evaluating the effectiveness of park management:
While these reasons relate specifically to park management, they demonstrate how evaluation supports responsible resource use, as well as transparency and accountability, across any group or program.
Evaluation helps groups understand what works, why and in what context. It can guide adaptations to improve programs or services over time.
ATSISPEP
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Project’s (ATSISPEP) Indigenous Suicide Prevention Evaluation Framework notes that evaluating Indigenous suicide prevention activities is essential for reducing Indigenous suicide and ensuring that limited resources are used to support the most effective activities. The framework highlights that evaluation focuses on assessing process, impact and outcomes. In other words, understanding what happened as a result of the activity and the effects and outcomes that followed.2The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Project (ATSISPEP), Indigenous Suicide Prevention Activity Evaluation Framework, accessed March 2026, [link].
ATSISPEP evaluate to:
Evaluation helps groups make informed choices about new activities or program expansions, and supports evidence-informed policy and practice.
ATSISPEP
For ATSISPEP, evaluation is used to guide decision-making. For instance, when two suicide prevention activities are being considered in a community, evaluation results can help determine which activity is more likely to achieve the desired outcomes.4The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Project (ATSISPEP), Indigenous Suicide Prevention Activity Evaluation Framework, accessed March 2026, [link], 4.
Evaluation can help strengthen a group or program’s relevance, safety and cultural responsiveness for the community it serves.
Juddah’s Place
In 2016, Juddah’s Place (JP) conducted an evaluation to examine how it was delivering care that was culturally specific to the Six Nations community. The process highlighted the need to clarify their model of care, better understand patient perceptions and measures of health and well-being and provide insight into the cancer journey for patients accessing support at JP.5Karen Hill, Elva Jamieson and Bernice Downey, Juddah’s Place: An Indigenous Evaluation Bringing Traditional Onkwehon:we Healing together with Medical Practice in Primary Care (Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Johnson Research, 2020).
Making Tracks Together
Making Tracks Together is Queensland’s Statewide First Nations Health Equity Strategies Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
Why they evaluate: To understand collective benefits of health equity strategies, assess legislative effectiveness and support learning for system-wide transformation to improve health outcomes for First Nations peoples.6Making Tracks Together: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (Brisbane: State of Queensland, Queensland Health, and Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council [QAIHC], 2024), 9.
Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program
The Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program (IHWP) aims to improve access to traditional healing and supports community members strengthen their ties to Indigenous culture through ceremonies, teachings and community initiatives. IHWP carried out an evaluation in 2019.7Eve Kahama, Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program Evaluation Report (prepared for the Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program, 2020), 3.
Why they evaluate: To assess success of program implementation and the effect the program had in achieving their high-level outcomes.8Eve Kahama, Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program Evaluation Report (prepared for the Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program, 2020), 3.
Indigenous Evaluation Strategy
The Productivity Commission’s Indigenous Evaluation Strategy provides a whole-of-government framework for Australian Government agencies for evaluating policies and programs affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.9Productivity Commission, Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, Background Paper, 2020.
Why they evaluate:
When planning evaluation, it helps to clarify:
Evaluation doesn’t always happen on a group’s own terms. It’s often driven by reporting or funding needs. But evaluation can also be a valuable tool for learning and improvement. This quick activity helps you reflect on the gap between what you currently do and what you want to do.
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Evaluation delivers a wide range of benefits, particularly when it is guided by Indigenous knowledge and perspectives.
When done well, it is not just about accountability to funders, but also supports learning and strengthens programs. It can also empower communities to shape their own development pathways.
Some key benefits include:
Informing policy and practice
Indigenous-led evaluation can bring together traditional knowledge and lived experience with formal evidence to inform decision-making at local, national and even global levels. For example, it can contribute valuable insights into areas such as climate change adaptation, land management and disaster risk reduction, where Indigenous knowledge systems are often critical.11Productivity Commission, Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, 2020, 4, [link].
Filling evidence gaps
Many policies and programs affecting Indigenous communities lack strong or relevant evidence. Evaluation helps build a clearer understanding of what is working, where, for whom and why. This strengthens the evidence base and supports more targeted and culturally appropriate programs.12Productivity Commission, Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, 2020, 4, [link].
Supporting learning and continuous improvement
Evaluation encourages organisations and communities to move beyond a focus on compliance (e.g., meeting reporting requirements) toward a culture of learning. It creates space to reflect on experiences, identify strengths and challenges and adapt programs to better meet community needs over time.
Strengthening community voice and ownership
When evaluation is participatory, it enables communities to define success, share their perspectives and guide decision-making. This supports self-determination.
Improving program design and outcomes
By identifying what works and what does not, evaluation helps refine program design, improve service delivery and achieve better outcomes for individuals and communities.
Improving accountability and transparency
Evaluation helps organisations and funders demonstrate how resources are being used and what impact is being achieved, while also ensuring accountability to the communities involved.13Productivity Commission, Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, 2020, 4, [link].
A significant number of Indigenous organisations are not-for-profit (NFP) entities.14 Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC), State of the sector January to June 2025, [link]; Marina Nehme, “Indigenous Corporations and the Best Interests of the Corporation: Members or Beyond?”, Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 55, no. 3 (2025), 548, [link]. Evaluation in these contexts can look different from for-profit organisations. For-profit organisations often have financial indicators like profit margins or revenue growth that they can use to measure success. NFP organisations must adopt different ways of evaluating how well they are performing. Because their primary goal is not to generate profit but to deliver services and create positive social impact, they need to develop creative and reliable methods for assessing how effectively they serve their communities.
Evaluation can support organisations to tell their own stories of impact in ways that are meaningful to community, while also meeting external reporting requirements where needed. Taking time to reflect helps ensure that NFP organisations remain accountable to community and focus on what matters most.
Indigenous NFP organisations are often focused on strengthening community wellbeing, culture, looking after Country and long-term outcomes for their people. This means they need approaches to evaluation that capture what matters most to their communities. This includes social, cultural, environmental and relational (i.e., the strength of relationships between people, community, culture and Country) impacts.
Staff in Indigenous organisations are often deeply committed and closely connected to the communities they serve. Busy schedules and strong community engagement can sometimes create the sense that programs are working well. However, without regular reflection and evaluation, it can be difficult to know whether programs are truly meeting community needs or achieving intended outcomes.
One challenge for NFPs is that there is no universal set of performance indicators or standardised benchmarks that fit all Indigenous organisations. Each group operates in a unique cultural, social and geographic context, serves different communities and pursues different goals. Because of this, groups should develop their own set of performance measures that reflect the specific outcomes they seek to achieve.
Developing these measures does not need to be complex. In most cases, groups can begin by asking a few straightforward questions about their work and the outcomes they hope to achieve. These questions form the foundation for creating meaningful indicators that help the organisation understand how well it is performing and how it can improve in the future.
This does not mean for-profit organisations don’t also need creative ways to measure success. While profit and revenue are common metrics in the for-profit sector, NFP organisations benefit from evaluation methods that capture things like community impact, wellbeing, social outcomes, employee engagement or environmental impact.
