Transparency around the methods used for co-design and in determining the outcomes stemming from the process is key to ensuring equitable partnerships and accountability. It is respectful and responsible to one another to be clear and honest about which parts of the project were truly co-designed, and the processes you used.
To ensure there are real and tangible benefits for communities from the co-design process, it is essential that the outcomes are measurable. Decisions about what outcomes you need to measure, what data to collect and how to collect it, must be informed by community and appropriate for the community.
It is a principle of co-design that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities own the data, information and the knowledge resulting from the project. Data and information must be available and accessible to community during the project and resting with community when the project is over. This is critical to ensure the project creates lasting benefits for communities.
The following best practices will enable transparency in the conduct and evaluation of a co-design project:
- Monitoring and evaluation processes are built into the project.
- Project outcomes are not pre-determined and are authentically co-designed.
- There is transparency in decision making and accountability to community stakeholders.
Things to consider
- Community may have different views to you about what a ‘good outcome’ is and how to measure this.
- Be transparent about which parts of a project or service have been co-designed and which have not.
- Talk to community about what a ‘good outcome’ is and about what data/information can be collected to help measure this.
- Ensure outcomes of the co-design process are measurable (either quantitatively or qualitatively) to enable evaluation and accountability. Find out more about culturally safe evaluation processes.
- Commit to implementing findings, recommendations and learnings from the co-design process.
“People say, “Oh, well, I co-designed it, then I went off and did this” You didn’t co-design the study, you didn’t co-design the outcome measures, and what data collection tools you were using and all of those things. You co-designed maybe the resources, or a component of a study, rather than a whole study.”
Focus group participant - Anderson K et al. Development of Key Principles and Best Practices for Co-Design in Health with First Nations Australians. IJERPH 2022; 20(1):147.
