Value for Investment
The award-winning Value for Investment (VfI) approach is a rigorous way of determining how well resources are used in public policy and social investment, whether that use creates enough value, and how more value can be created. It helps people reach clear, defensible answers to value-for-money questions and make better decisions about what to start, continue, adapt, scale or stop.
We offer training, capability-building support and free VfI resources to help people and organisations adopt VfI and answer those questions with greater clarity.
Combining strengths of evaluation and economics
People making or advising on public policy and social investment decisions need to judge whether policies, programs, services, and organisations are worth the resources invested in them. These decisions involve real trade-offs because money, time, capability, relationships, natural resources, and opportunities used in one intervention cannot be used elsewhere.
VfI combines economic and evaluative thinking to provide answers that are clear enough to use and robust enough to defend.
The VfI approach was developed through doctoral research and has been tested and refined in over a decade of real-world application. The result is a practical approach that brings evaluative rigour to value-for-money assessment.
How VfI works
Value for money is the question. VfI is the approach for answering it.
VfI is not a single method or metric. It is a practical system for guiding the use of existing methods and tools – helping people define what matters, identify the evidence needed, and reach a sound judgement in context.
VfI frames policies and programs as investments in value propositions – explicit accounts of the social, cultural, environmental and/or economic value they are meant to create, and what good resource use should look like in that context.
VfI then develops a transparent framework for making sense of evidence. This usually includes a rubric: clear criteria and standards that set out what good looks like and provide a disciplined basis for judgement. VfI brings together qualitative, quantitative, and economic evidence to build a fuller picture of an investment’s resources, actions, consequences and value.
A VfI assessment is guided by eight clear steps. It involves people who fund, deliver, use, and are affected by an investment in defining what matters and making sense of evidence. VfI makes expectations, evidence and reasoning explicit, so that judgements can show clearly when an investment is creating enough value, where it can improve, or when it is not good enough.
Around the world
The VfI approach is used internationally to evaluate complex policies, programs, and organisations, from one-off assessments to enduring evaluation systems and performance frameworks. Government agencies, consulting firms, NGOs, universities, bilateral and multilateral organisations use the approach to support accountability, learning and better resource-allocation decisions. For examples, visit the VfI resource library.
VfI has been applied across a wide range of fields, including aged care, agriculture, biodiversity, climate, community services, conservation, creative arts and culture, defence, disability, disaster risk management, early childhood development, economic development, education and training, emergency preparedness and response, energy, enterprise and innovation, environment, female economic empowerment, financial inclusion, governance, health care, housing, humanitarian assistance and innovation, Indigenous development, infrastructure, insurance, international aid and development, justice, labour market and employment, law enforcement, local government, market development, media and communications, mental health and addictions, nutrition, oceans and coastal resilience, philanthropy, public financial management, public health, regional and place-based development, research and development, scientific research and training, social development, social impact, sport and recreation, trade and enterprise, transport, tourism and the visitor economy, urban design, violence prevention, waste management, and women’s rights and health.
VfI training
VfI is taught around the world through evaluation associations and in the online Master of Evaluation program at the University of Melbourne. It’s included in whole-of-government evaluation training in the UK. Private workshops and mentoring help teams apply VfI in practice – clarifying what matters in their context, developing practical rubrics, and making better use of the evidence they already have. To discuss training or mentoring, contact Julian.
New book coming soon
In press with Routledge, Value for Investment: An Evaluative System for Government, Public Services, and Social Investment is written for people who commission, conduct, or make decisions based on value-for-money assessments. It sets out the principles, eight-step process and practical tools behind VfI.
“Julian King has a rare ability to make hard questions about value for money answerable. Value for Investment builds a bridge between economics and evaluation, making judgements transparent and open to scrutiny. Tested and sharpened in real work with colleagues at OPM, it makes VfM assessments rigorous and usable.”
– Mark Henstridge, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Policy Management
VfI resources
Explore the VfI resource library for open-access guidance, reports, worked examples, and articles. To stay up to date with the latest thinking and examples from practice, read Evaluation and Value for Investment on Substack.
