Evaluation of suicide prevention activities

10 Findings: Efficiency

Page last updated: January 2014

In the preceding chapters, evaluation findings are presented in relation to appropriateness (Chapter 7) and effectiveness (Chapter 8 and Chapter 9). This chapter examines the extent to which the NSPP and funded activities have been delivered efficiently and represent value for money to the Australian Government.86

86 "Efficiency is the extent to which an evaluand produces outputs and outcomes without wastage of time, effort, money, space, or other resources. Efficiency alone is insufficient to determine merit or worth – an evaluand could be highly efficient but produce outcomes of insufficient value (eg, too small an effect), or it could still be excessively costly even though it used as few resources as possible (ie, it exceeded budgetary or time constraints, even in its most efficient form)." J Davidson, 'Efficiency', in S Mathieson (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Evaluation, Sage Publications, London, 2007, p123.