Prepared for Pan West Community Futures Network

Project Completion

October 2004

Background/Context

The Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDC) is funded by Western Diversification (WD) through the Community Futures Program.  The main objective of the Community Futures Program is to support community economic development by aiding communities in their development and diversification.  This is done through:  Strategic Community Planning; Business Services and; Access to Capital.

To date, CFDC performance has been reviewed in terms of traditional business indicators.  Over the past few years, however, there has been increased pressure from community stakeholders to broaden the method of assessment of CFDC’s performance to include the full range of their community economic development activities.

The Pan West Community Futures Network’s  (PWCFN) interest in creating an effective performance measurement framework takes into account both social and economic factors that will be complementary to other initiatives which will be launched with federal government support.

Purpose of the Report

The purpose of the assignment was to assist the PWCFN in the development of a position on a revised performance measurement system for CFDC in Western Canada.

Methodology

To prepare this report, a participatory approach was used to actively engage the stakeholders in the design of the study, data analysis, and the development of the recommendations.

During the first phase of the study, issues dealing with study design and timing considerations were discussed at an introductory meeting with Pan West and WD representatives.  In the second phase, internal documents of WD and PWCFN were reviewed by a research team who also conducted a review of documentation on performance measurement related to CED-type initiatives.  The third phase of the study included ten interviews with CFDC managers and a workshop session in which key issues were discussed and directions were proposed. Finally, for the last stage, the stakeholders were asked to review draft versions of the report and participate in the finalization of the report.

Summary

The report provided some background, set the context, and outlined the views of the stakeholders based on a workshop and a review of relevant articles and documents. Specific recommendations were proposed on how a revised performance measurement system could strengthen managerial capacities. The report also identified the types of issues that needed to be examined and concluded with some suggestions on how to develop a policy framework for a revised performance system with special focus on community economic development indicators.