Recommendations

Based on the information collected as part of this evaluation, the following recommendations identified could enhance the relevance, success, and design & delivery of the Western Diversification Program.

Relevance

1. The department needs to maintain the current flexibility within the WDP in future design and delivery of the program.

• Stakeholders agreed that the flexibility of the WDP is key to be able to address the needs of the west, which change over time.
• The diversity within the WDP helped many projects to be funded in innovation, community economic development and entrepreneurship.
• Flexibility will continue to be needed especially in community economic adjustment to mitigate economic crisis. The continued dependence of the western provinces on resources and commodities will mean that commodity markets will continue to have a major cyclical impact.

Success

2. The department should improve performance measurement processes to capture linkages between strategic outcomes and program activities.

• Research indicates linkages exist among different project activities as identified in the department's PAA. Results from one strategic area impact other strategic areas.
• Future design of the program should take into account the development of a logic model that reflects these linkages. The logic model or parts of it can serve as a tool for program officers to use in the due diligence process to capture activity linkages.

3. The department should develop a system to follow-up on projects after WDP funding ends to track long-term benefits.

• Currently, after WDP funding ends, files are closed and long-term results are not tracked. This impacted on the ability of the evaluation to track progress towards the achievement of strategic outcomes.
• An example for such a system is to use co-op students to track long-term results as is being done at the Manitoba regional office.

4. The department should continue to use the WDP to strengthen existing and develop new partnerships.

• Research suggests that the WDP promotes collaboration and that partnerships are strengthened by the involvement of the WDP.
• Recipients were able to elaborate on the wide range of funding partnerships that are developed for their projects.
• Partnerships are often long-term in nature, and funding partners' work to enhance the projects that they are involved in.

Design and Delivery

5. The department should improve the monitoring process to ensure that client reporting demonstrates results achieved against project indicators.

• Progress reporting does not always demonstrate success (or lack of it) on individual projects.
• Progress reports do not specifically and routinely address the indicators that are outlined in the DDR.
• For some recipients, reporting is often difficult, time-consuming, and requires a significant amount of resources (both staff and financial).

6. The department should improve databases to ensure that all pertinent information is collected and updated.

• The findings suggest that databases do not always have complete and/or accurate contact information for funding recipients, and partner information is sometimes missing or referred to in very general terms.
• Very little data is collected about projects that do not receive funding and why they do not receive that funding.
• Information with regard to in-kind funding is not adequately outlined in the database, and this type of information could be a significant form of leveraging.