New Report: Assessing the Impacts of Public Participation

Posted by on October 27, 2008

Assessing the Impacts of Public Participation: Concepts, Evidence and Policy Implications

The expansion of ordinary citizens’ roles in a variety of policy and decision-making processes has created a pressing need to draw out the lessons from accumulated work in the field of public engagement to inform the design and evaluation of new public engagement processes. In particular, the effects of these roles on decision processes and outcomes, and on the citizens themselves, warrant scrutiny. These questions are increasingly relevant to health policy makers and health system managers working in local, provincial and national or pan-Canadian settings to find meaningful and effective ways to involve citizens in their decision-making processes. In this paper, we explore what is known about the extent to which the goals of public participation in policy have been met. Available online PDF at: http://www.chepa.org/LinkClick.aspx?link=pdf%2fCHEPA+WP+08-01.pdf&tabid=130&mid=450