FOUNDATIONS OF EVALUATION FOR PLANETARY HEALTH
By ASTRID BROUSSELLE
2026
ISBN 978-1-55058-737-1 (paperback), 978-1-55058-736-4 (PDF), 978-1-55058-738-8 (EPUB)
260 pages
Print, PDF, EPUB
Foundations of Evaluation for Planetary Health offers a comprehensive framework for reimagining evaluation in the context of polycrises. Grounded in the 2024 Earth Day Evaluation Declaration, the book integrates planetary health lenses across all major evaluation questions and steps, from logic models to logic analysis, effect analysis, and implementation analysis, economic evaluation, needs assessment, and monitoring. By embedding planetary health perspectives into mainstream evaluation methodologies, this textbook equips researchers, evaluators, and policymakers with theoretical foundations and practical tools to address environmental and social interdependence in the Anthropocene.
Subjects: evaluation, methodology, methods, Anthropocene, planetary health, evaluation theory
About the Hummingbird Drawing
What do you do on your day-to-day when you are happy, sad, or when you need to keep your mind busy? Personally, I play music and I draw. Arts have always been part of my life and of who I am. Not that I pretend to be an artist or even think that I am good at it. I just do it. It’s also how I find resiliency in this difficult world where I feel we are neither doing the right things nor doing things right.
Throughout my life, I have played the piano and the saxophone and I play the clarinet. I have also been part of a Gamelan (music from Bali) and played organ in an experimental bike orchestra. I am now learning the accordion. I have played music from different parts of the world: classical and traditional music from Europe and Bali, as well as klezmer music, little jazz pieces, and Latin American music, for example.
Drawing has always been part of who I am too. When I was a teenager, I painted very sad faces that nobody liked (except my mother) because they were too scary. I have doodled all my life, mostly to stay focused when listening to someone. And from time to time, I have had periods of intense drawing. I love using oil pastels for the intensity of their colours. In recent years, I have been drawing animals such as crows, fish, herons, sea otters, hummingbirds, octopuses, orcas, etc.
I was born and raised in France and moved to Montreal, Canada, when I was just 18. I have lived in Quebec for most of my life and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, at the very end of 2017. In Victoria, deer come into my garden to sleep. They also eat everything I plant, and I have given up on gardening; I just let things grow as they want! Birds also come, small and big, from hummingbirds to bushtits, crows, owls, and eagles. When I go snorkelling, I am amazed by the vivid colours of sea urchins, seaweeds, and starfish. And sometimes a sea lion, a seal, or just a bird will come to say “hi” underwater. When I am sailing, orcas and humpbacks swim in the same areas. So, after arriving in BC, I started to draw more animals. I wanted to celebrate their colours, they are so beautiful!
When I start a drawing, I pick three colours that I find match well and start with them. I then experiment according to the inspiration of the moment. For this hummingbird that I chose for my book cover, I picked green and some variations of pink/red. For the wings, I tried to create an optical illusion to give an impression of movement. You know how hummingbirds move their wings so fast! I can’t say that I was successful here, as the result looks more like a tapestry than something moving fast! That’s life! For the head, I applied a technique usually used in watercolour, where the artist always leaves a blank space between the fill and the contour. Then I added the big bubbles as an explosion of colours associated with flowers. I chose this drawing for my book cover because I included a prologue about the hummingbird fable. I then drew hummingbirds for each chapter as a small reminder that we all can become hummingbirds in our communities and bring positive change, even if sometimes desperately small.
I wrote this book with the intention of equipping the community of evaluators with new approaches to create a better world for all. I published it in Open Access with the help and support of the University of Victoria librarians to make it widely accessible. I wanted to make it inclusive and accessible. I try to walk the talk of the values I defend. As a non-Indigenous person who has lived in and values very diverse and different cultural contexts, this book has been created from who I am, what I have learnt, and what I have been exposed to.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I will be happy to meet with you and chat!
Sincerely,
Astrid Brousselle
I was born in France, lived in Paris from the age of eight, and moved to Canada when I was 18 years old. I spent most of my life in Canada. I hold a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in health administration, and a PhD in public health from the Université de Montréal. During my Ph.D., I conducted an implementation analysis of the UNAIDS initiative for access to HIV/AIDS drugs in Chile. After completing my Ph.D. under the supervision of François Champagne, an expert in evaluation, and Gilles Bibeau, an anthropologist, I deepened my knowledge and practice of evaluation approaches and methods as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University under the supervision of Céline Mercier.
Between 2005 and 2010, I held a research position in the Department of Health Administration at the Université de Montréal. In 2010, I began a research position at the Université de Sherbrooke, where I held a Canada Research Chair in Evaluation and Health System Improvement. The goal of the chair was to leverage the evaluation process to influence the situation or intervention being studied. At the end of 2017, I moved to Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) as the Director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, where I served a five-year term. Between 2015 and 2019, I was the French editor of The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation/Revue canadienne d’évaluation de programme, and I served on the editorial board of Evaluation and Program Planning for many years. I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation/Revue canadienne d’évaluation de programme.
Throughout my career, I have experimented with various evaluation approaches in diverse contexts, reflecting on their strengths and limitations. I have worked extensively with participatory approaches and have found that, while they work well in some contexts, they are less effective in polarized settings. This led me to explore other approaches better suited to these contexts. I have also conducted various economic evaluations and explored innovative approaches in this field. Additionally, I have developed and applied theory-based approaches to evaluation. Recently, I became interested in the concept of post-truth. I am deeply grateful to have worked with many students who share a passion for evaluation, applying a variety of approaches in their dissertations, theses, and projects.
Since 2015, my focus has shifted to the socio-ecological transition. I could not continue working on the healthcare system while witnessing the devastating impacts of climate change and other environmental crises on both human beings and other species. This realization led me to develop new frameworks and approaches in evaluation, aiming to support transformative practices that contribute to healthy and sustainable living environments.
As both a human being and a researcher, I uphold the values of integrity, decolonization, equity, diversity, sustainability, democracy, and engagement. I strongly believe that a different world must be created, one that respects the human rights of all, worldwide, and that celebrates the richness of diverse cultures. A unifying element across these values and agendas is the fundamental importance of relationships with nature, human beings, and all forms of life.
Evaluation for planetary health acknowledges the importance of nurturing positive relationships in all that we do and serves as an invitation to create systems in which all can thrive.
Kai Mountfort
Kai holds a Master of Public Administration, a Bachelor of Science (Biology and Earth & Ocean Sciences), and a Diploma in Business Administration, all from the University of Victoria. His academic pursuits included a directed study on Chinook salmon population dynamics and a thesis on planetary health evaluation of the District of Sooke’s Official Community Plan.
His professional journey began with co-op placements at the Canadian Wildlife Service, followed by a role as a wildlife biologist, where he contributed to biodiversity conservation programs and developed guidelines for Indigenous conservation requests. Transitioning to the Government of BC, Kai now serves as a conservation policy analyst, focusing on wetland protection, regulatory amendments, and Indigenous capacity funding.
Dedicated to protecting Earth’s habitability, Kai is driven to make an impact on biodiversity and climate change through policy and advocacy. He lives in Sooke, BC, with his family on the traditional unceded territories of the T’sou-ke Nation and the Scia’new Nation. He is actively involved in the local agricultural community and enjoys outdoor activities, envisioning a future off-grid homestead.
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
ABSTRACT
PROLOGUE: THE HUMMINGBIRD FABLE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREAMBLE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
INVITATION
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 | CONTEXT MATTERS: EVALUATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Chapter 2 | EVALUATION FOR PLANETARY HEALTH
Chapter 3 | THE PLANETARY HEALTH RAPID IMPACT ASSESSMENT TOOL
Chapter 4 | EVALUATION: DEFINITIONS, APPROACHES AND QUESTIONS
Chapter 5 | PREPARING FOR THE EVALUATION
Chapter 6 | REPRESENTING THE INTERVENTION
Chapter 7 | LOGIC ANALYSIS
Chapter 8 | EFFECT ANALYSIS AND RELATED APPROACHES
Chapter 9 | IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS
Chapter 10 | ECONOMIC EVALUATION
Chapter 11 | NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Chapter 12 | MONITORING
Chapter 13 | EVALUATING A LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN USING PLANETARY HEALTH LENSES
FURTHER THOUGHTS AND RESOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY