Summary

NSW Aboriginal Affairs commissioned the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), UNSW Sydney, to evaluate the Three Rivers Regional Assembly (TRRA) Accord negotiation operating as part of OCHRE – Opportunity, Choice, Healing, Responsibility, Empowerment. OCHRE is the community-focussed plan for Aboriginal people in NSW. The key aim of the TRRA local decision-making evaluation was to assess whether the Accords negotiations were implemented as intended and what could be done to improve outcomes from similar negotiations in the future.The methodology included qualitative interviews and focus groups with stakeholders and qualitative document analysis. The evaluation found that the positive experiences of the pre-Accord workshops and Accord negotiations have been overshadowed by the failure to progress the Accord after three years of planning and negotiations, and has left many stakeholders disheartened by this failure.