Evaluation of the National Investment Stream of the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia
Final Report to the Department of the Environment and Heritage and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Prepared by ITS Global
January 2006
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About this document
The National Investment Stream (NIS) is a component of the extension of the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia (NHT). It focuses on activities which have a broad national scale or priority. Activities include Australian Government activities, state-wide activities and themes that cross state, territory and regional boundaries. NIS investments also address matters of direct Commonwealth jurisdiction, such as those pertaining to Commonwealth waters and lands.
The NIS component of the NHT is guided by the Strategic Plan for National Investment under the Natural Heritage Trust, which sets out the priorities for Commonwealth only investment between 2003 and 2007.
Activities funded under the Plan will give effect to Commonwealth environmental and natural resource responsibilities and priorities including international obligations, threatened species and ecological communities, migratory species, environment and resources in Commonwealth waters, co-ordinated approaches to capacity building and development of innovative approaches to NRM.
All activities funded by the NIS are to be directed at meeting the NHT’s three primary objectives (biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource use and capacity building and institutional change) through ten priority areas of activities linked to 29 NIS priority outcomes.
Investments under the NIS Program are to be made in accordance with three overarching principles and four investment criteria (which are set out in the Strategic Plan for National Investment under the Natural Heritage Trust) to ensure projects have a national scope and approach.
Performance reporting for NIS investments is guided by the “Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy for National Investment Stream of NHT”. The Strategy establishes processes to monitor the progress and achievement of NIS investments, and to evaluate the performance of NIS investments in achieving their intended results.
Under the Strategy, monitoring of the NIS is to be conducted at whole-of-investment-stream level and individual project level.
The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an assessment of the effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness of the NIS in the achievement of NHT outcomes and objectives. The evaluation will assess the NIS management processes and the achievement of the outcomes by NIS investments to date, and make recommendations on improving NIS implementation.
ITS Global undertook an evaluation of 17 projects covering seven evaluation themes linked to specific priority activity areas, together with discussion with Australian Government officials, research and analyses, and reviews of relevant reports to inform the evaluation.
The results of this work formed the basis for the evaluation.
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