The Environmental Contribution levee raises funds to support the delivery of the Victorian Governments long term water plan. The fourth tranche, which commenced on 1 July 2016 raised and allocated over $402 million over four years.  A total of 19 initiatives were allocated funding under EC4 and ranged significantly in scale – temporal and spatial, type, investment level and complexity.

Alluvium was engaged to develop an evaluation plan for assessing the outcomes and achievements of the initiatives funded under EC4 between 2016 –17 and 2019-20 and a program logic for outlining ongoing achievements and outcomes.

Prior to developing this evaluation plan for the whole-of-trance, each initiative was required to develop a program logic and evaluation plan using a separate set of guidelines. While most evaluation plans have been developed at the initiative level, some initiatives have been broken into component projects for evaluation purposes, and single year initiatives have been aligned with related three-year initiatives.

The aim of this evaluation plan was to consider the impact and effectiveness of EC4 as whole, rather than evaluating individual initiatives. In developing this plan, systems thinking has been applied to capture the integrated nature of the initiatives in meeting the EC objectives. The function of individual initiatives are not standalone, many inform one-another or go on to provide foundational components for the water sector in Victoria. Therefore, it has been deemed appropriate to set up an evaluation plan that attempts to grasp these complexities and interrelated elements.

This document is one part of the EC MER framework that seeks to provide a consistent and systematic approach for the assessment of the impact and effectiveness of EC funded initiatives from a whole-of-tranche perspective.